Act 1: Hidden from Shadows
by Lady Helena Styvhals
Summary: Tsuna has been bullied for almost eleven years now, and she can't recall a time where anything was different, but with one mistake, everything changed, and she finally got the chance to experience the luxury called "friendship". But... what Tsuna doesn't know, was that the mistake has also awakened a bloodline, a bloodline that will let her know exitement, wonder, and danger.
1. Scene 1: Gnawing Sensation

**A/N: EDITED 17-09-18**

 **Alright... I've finally done it!  
**

 **I've actually gotten around to writing what I have wanted to write for sooooo long!**

 **Her ladyship is back! And she is ready to share what a lot of you have been waiting for for like... is it almost a year? It feels like it's almost been a year, But her ladyship has been busy with studies and her interest has rarely allowed her to write on this, but now I have finally succeeded.**

 **You have no idea how hard it was to write the canon names, my brain was constantly telling me to use "Cecilia" in stead of "Tsuna"! I had to practically beat myself over the head in order to get the names right, I hope you humans appretiate what I'm doing for you!**

* * *

 **Scene 1:**

 **Gnawing sensation**

If someone were to walk straight up to you on the street and ask you the question:

"Where can I find Sawada Tsunako?"

Your immediate response would most likely be somewhere along the lines of:

"Why the fuck are you looking for Sawada?"

Or, if you are not one to curse, you could respond with:

"Dame-Tsuna? No one cares where she lives."

Or, the always popular:

"You're new in town, aren't you?"

The reason behind this, is because Sawada Tsunako, ever since she was five years old, has been practically shunned by everyone around her own age, those younger than her having somehow been brainwashed into thinking she's the perfect older sister, and those in their twenties and older somehow getting the idea that she's a sweet girl that they should feel sorry for.

The thing is, these feelings for her happened rather out of the blue. One day she'd gone about her day like any other child and almost the very next day she had turned into the main target for the hateful gazes of her peers.

Now, why would a teenage girl be the main target to the heated glares and stress-relief of the other teens around her?

Well, for one, she is absolutely disgusting.

The girl probably never washes with the way her hair is in a constant state of a greasy birds-nest on top of her head, so if that wasn't an indicator to her hygene nothing were. She also seem to shy away from any form of cosmetics as though they were posessed by the devil.

Another would be that the girl is absolutely stupid and clumsy.

There hasn't been one test in school that Dame-Tsuna has even come close to passing, and it would appear as though the girl could trip over thin air, always being the cause of her teams losses during physical class or even accidentally tripping into people when walking through the corridors of the school buildings and just being a great nuisance to everyone. And yet, the teaches just pat her on the head and tells her not to worry about it too much, allowing her to move up the grades despite her scores, mocking every other student that plows through their studies.

She's never opened a text book that pathetic suck up!

The worst part, however, was that she was terribly rude.

Every time someone has tried to speak to Tsuna, she either pretends as though she's not hearing you, or she gives you a long look before looking away as though you're not right behind her trying to make a conversation, as though you are not worthy of her attention.

She should see it as a privilege if anyone wanted to talk to her.

Some have even tried to resort to drastic measures in an attempt at making Tsuna at least let out a sound, but she always clammed her mouth shut, not allowing even a groan to escape her lips.

So why would anyone ever come looking for such an absolutely disgusting waste of human D.N.A?

* * *

 ** _April 16_**

 ** _Thursday 2215_**

She was turning sixteen that year.

And for whatever reason, for the past few days, she's felt as though her relatively normal life up to this point was terribly wrong. Something was going to happen, and soon. It was gnawing at the back of her mind, telling her that something wasn't right. She couldn't tell what exactly, she never did, but she'd learned to pay attention to those feelings.

With a sigh, she turned her light brown eyes back towards the canvas stationed in front of her, resuming the movement of her slender arm guiding the tiny limb that was her right hand holding the brush.

She had different sized and colored flecks of paint splattered all over the white short jeans overalls she always wore when painting, the orange T-shirt under it was left unharmed. Her messy, shoulder-length golden brown hair had been tied up into an equally messy bun at the back of her head, she was worried she might have to cut off the elastic if she were ever going to get her hair down again.

Painting was one of the only things she could do right. One of the only things that managed to give her piece.

The thing that had caused her to pause in the first place, had been the sudden sound of a bird singing over her head.

Being in the 23rd century, real birds that hadn't been born and developed in special animal restoration laboratories were a rare thing to find. Those creatures developed in labs never quite sounded right, but those born in nature always did. And this one bird had sounded real.

With a final smear between the darker and lighter color of green, Tsuna allowed herself to lean back and take a look at the final result of her six hours on the porch.

She had skipped half the school-day that day.

It wasn't really something that she usually did, but some days, her classmates just got too much for her to handle, even with all of her experience with them.

This weeks painting was a forest clearing, a clearing that she'd actually painted several times before in different weathers and seasons. In this painting, the tree's greenery parted ways for the piercing rays of the sun, allowing the bright white flowers mixed in with the grass to glow as they basked in the light's warmth. She allowed her eyes to wander over the expertly placed shadowing, a small smile playing on her lips.

She's always been proud of her sense of shadows.

She had no idea why that clearing became a reoccurring subject in her paintings, she never went into her weekly paintings knowing what she's going to paint, she just lets it become what she finds it becoming, and more often than not, she found herself painting the same clearing.

Settling the painting down, leaning it against the wall of the house, Tsuna set to cleaning up her supplies. Carefully putting each utensil back into the wooden briefcase in which they had their home, making sure they were all spotless so as to not color the wood inside of the case. Every single utensil Tsuna owned has its own assigned spot, and she always triple-checked that everything was in place before she set the case down way out of reach for her bare feet.

Precautionary rituals that have been integrated into her lifestyle over the years.

Picking up the painting with great care, making sure that the image wouldn't touch anything, Tsuna carried the canvas up the stairs to her bedroom, the attic door thankfully already standing open so she could just ascend the remaining steps until she was standing in her absolute mess of sleeping quarters.

Expertly navigating over the junk-covered floor, Tsuna picked down last weeks painting portraying a glowing cityscape and replaced it with the one she'd just finished. This particular spot on the wall was something she'd designated as the "drying spot", or simply "painting of the week". Once upon a time, she'd tried to put each and every one of her paintings up on the wall, but as said time passed, the number of paintings increased, until she discovered that trying to fit all of her paintings on the walls would literally _cover_ her walls. Now, the paintings from the previous weeks were stashed at the back of her closet, the only place she could put them really as her bedroom had a severe lack of storage space.

After having fetched her art-supplies from downstairs, the young woman changed out of her paint-splattered clothing, putting them on a hanger she'd previously set out in case she'd wound up with more splatters on them, which always happened. It wouldn't matter if the walls were splattered with paint, Tsuna was thinking about re-painting them sometime soon anyways so it didn't matter to her.

With the paint splattered article of clothing hanging on the wall as well, Tsuna changed into a pair of jeans hot-pants and a pink and white striped sweater who's sleeves went way past her wrists and clung to her figure in the most comfortable way possible.

Her clothing was practically the only things in Tsuna's bedroom aside from her art-supplies and desk stationaries that actually had a proper, designated place where she's decided they belong, and thus… one of the few things in her bedroom that actually have some semblance of order to them.

Her flood was covered with discarded papers, books, half-filled sketch-books, make-up of different pharmacy-bought brands, jewelry, other types of accessories such as shoes, purses, hats. Not to mention the small collection of antique toys her father had bought her from overseas over the years for her birthday, Christmas's, and really whenever he wanted to as she was growing up.

Some toys he had gotten her were simply too beautiful to be put away, which the majority of the boys had been, and so, they had made their place in her bedroom and beautiful decorations that were rarely seen through the rest of the mess that covered her floor.

Thankfully, she knew where to put her feet so she wouldn't step on them.

Her mother never once tried to step into her room because of this.

She really needed to get more storage space….

At the moment, however, that didn't matter to her as she allowed herself to drop down into the very comfortable office-chair standing in front of her desk.

Breathing in the strong scent of fresh oil-pain, she popped open her laptop.

Her life was… to put it simply…

Boring.

She had just graduated middle-school with barely passing grades and started high-school just two weeks ago. Somehow she had gotten a strange idea that high-school was going to be different. For it to finally give some change in the lifestyle she's had for the past almost eleven years.

A good change.

How wrong she was.

High-school was just the same, if not worse.

Where middle-school had been filled with kids sporting low self-esteem at the beginning of puberty, high-school was a gathering of hormonal carnivores that had just developed their claws and fangs, just waiting for something so sink those new aspects of them into.

And more often than not, it just so happened that that little something was Tsuna.

She couldn't help it, she really, physically couldn't. No matter how many lessons she took in classical ballet, her sense of balance remained just the same. Nonexistent whenever she actually paid attention to it. She could trip over practically anything, the ballet just gave her the reflexes that prevented her from falling on her nose all the time. She also had this thing with test-taking situations where she would find herself completely unable to focus during times of stress. She would try to sit down and take a test and just find her brain crumbling.

She hasn't passed a test since, ever.

She really couldn't help it though, and thankfully, the teachers were well aware of this fact. The only reason she was able to graduate from Middle-school was that she'd passed her homework-assignments with flying colors, and the teachers had allowed her to prove her knowledge through other means than sitting down and take a test, and thankfully, she'd managed to pass them with enough points to survive the grade.

Adults were the only ones that understood, or even knew that Tsuna really couldn't help everything she was being picked on for. It truly wasn't her fault that her brain had absolutely refused to fully develop, making it so that Tsuna's functions completely fell apart whenever she tried to motivate herself to do something or even decide on anything in particular.

Just the thought of calmly putting one foot in front of the other caused her to trip over thin air.

The doctors had no idea what to do about it, and so, Tsuna just had to live with it.

The mere factor that she'd managed to graduate from Middle-school was a _huge_ step for her.

But now, she was stuck in a class filled with hormonal monsters that were all trying to make themselves feel better by trying to make her feel like something less than human, making it so that Tsuna had come to regret her one moment of actual good luck in life.

And so, she buried herself in her own little world of art and dance.

Had she been any normal person, she probably would have ended her apparent suffering a long time ago, but Sawada Tsunako was not a normal person. At least, she didn't think she was.

She was her father's daughter, and even if there were only a few traits that the two of them shared, the almost overpowering strength of will and stubbornness made it all the easier for Tsuna to power through every day that passed by, even if the man that had given her those traits in the first place wasn't there.

The gnawing sensation was back, and with it came the strong, very, very strong, suspicion that something was about to happen to her, something that would change her life completely.

She would just have to suck it up and deal with her life as it was until that day finally came.

* * *

 ** _April 17_**

 ** _Friday 2215_**

Tsuna woke up the next morning to the sound of her alarm-clock blaring at a medium-high volume. It's strange combined sound of rooster-cried, vibrating bell, the smashing of fragile objects and a strange melody more than likely played on the xylophone echoing around the room.

When she'd chosen the alarm for the first time, she'd laughed at the ridiculousness of it, but now she just groaned.

Truly, she'd made the right choice.

She'd long since discovered that it was easier for her to wake up to the smaller sounds that the louder ones for some reason. She didn't complain though as it worked and she didn't have to worry that she's waiting up the neighbors with the sound of her alarm, even though she did sometimes feel as though she did so anyhow.

Leaving her hair in the usual mess it was in, Tsuna pulled on the uniform she'd just started to become used to wearing. Reaching out for the blue plaid pleated skirt instead of the gray one, the black thigh-socks instead of the white knee ones, the black button-up blazer with golden details instead of the dark gray sweater-vest, and the blue blazer with golden edging instead of the plain yellow one. The only part of the uniform that didn't really change was the plain white blouse really.

To be honest, Tsuna preferred the new uniform to the old one in an artistic sense.

She allowed her hand to run over the embroidered crest patch over the left side of her chest.

Namimori high-school.

Letting her hand drop, she didn't bother checking her reflection in the full-body mirror standing in the corner of the room. She knew she probably looked like all the garments apart from the skirt and socks were two sizes too big for her, and her hair bearing more of a resemblance to a bird's nest than actual hair.

She had picked the size of the uniform with a possible future growth spurt in mind, even though that was highly unlikely and very much against her mother's wishes who wanted nothing more than for her daughter to show off that perfect ballerina figure she'd trained so hard to obtain over the years, and now she was paying for that choice in the mocking voices of the students around her in class and in the corridors believing that she was too ashamed to show off her figure since she most likely didn't have one.

Their words, not hers.

Sometimes, her observational skills worked against her.

Picking up her Mirror screen from her desk, Tsuna went over her presentation once more. Displaying the most exotic look pastries and bakes from her mother's store. It was the only subject she could think about for her social studies assignment.

Why did they have to make a presentation on a relative's profession when the only relative Tsuna was aware of where her parents. Said parents absolutely refused to talk about their own relatives, optioning to keep either side of the family an absolute secret from their daughter.

Why they did this, Tsuna had no idea.

Wandering into the kitchen, Tsuna saw her mother standing at the counter like she always did in the morning. It was almost the only time Tsuna would see her in the whole day before the woman would slip away to the bakery and not be seen until the late hours of the night. At the moment, she was wearing that regular pink apron with her shoulder-long chocolate brown hair twisted up into a bun at the back of her head.

It had been jaw length three years ago, but her mother found that she hadn't liked the look all that much, and so she had optioned to grow it out. Now, it just brushed over her shoulders. It actually looked longer than Tsuna's did with her hair the way it was, they didn't even know how it would look like should she actually take the time to take care of her hair.

Neither of them knew how to manage ringlets.

"Morning." Tsuna greeted her mother, letting her school bag slip down her shoulder to rest it against the table's leg before she herself slid down into the chair.

"Morning, Tsuna-chan." Sawada Nana greeted back, turning around towards her daughter with two plates expertly clutched in her one hand and a glass of milk in the other.

Tsuna liked to believe that, should her brain actually have been normal, she would have had her mother's balance.

She also wished she'd have her mother's hair.

It was odd to Tsuna that her mother had such a dark brown color of her hair and her father (the half-Italian that shall forever remain a secret to her schoolmates) had such a dark blond color it almost looked like a straw-color, Tsuna had been left with something more akin to golden-brown. Only, as her hair was at the moment, that particular factor was way out of eyesight, it looked more like a muddy brown but that was just because she hadn't washed it in about three days now.

She should probably get to that before she went to bed that night.

Nana settles down a plate of egg and bacon in front of her daughter, a cooling piece of toast on the other plate and proceeded to just sit there, head leaning on her knuckles as she watched her only child slowly eat the food with as much trained etiquette one can access that early in the morning. She usually did this, but this time… she had a worried look on the face that greatly resembled her daughters.

About half-way through her meal, the look became too much for Tsuna.

"Mom." The girl spoke up, setting down her fork as she turned towards the woman.

At the sound of her daughter's voice, the woman jumped slightly. Too caught up in her own thoughts to register anything else then Tsuna suspected.

"Mom, what is it?"

It took a few seconds, but the woman eventually lets out a long breath, allowing her hand to slide down onto the table as she straightened out her back, looking at her daughter with a concerned look in her eyes.

"There's just something…" the woman began, closing her eyes for a moment before she looked at her daughter again. "I feel as if something terrible is going to happen today."

Tsuna couldn't help a frown from creeping up her face.

Biting her lip, she reached out to take her mother's hand.

This wasn't really something that happened often, she'd always been a lot more of a daddy's little girl, so she's never been as close to her mother as she's been to her father.

The father that hasn't physically been there since she was ten.

"Nothing's going to happen," Tsuna assured her mother. "It's just school."

Calming down a little, Nana smiled again.

"I suppose you're right."

* * *

Groaning slightly, Tsuna pulled up her Mirror-screen, preparing herself for the lesson that was about to roll around. Several others in the classroom were following her example, though they would never admit that they were doing that even if they had a gun pointed to their heads.

First class after lunch, everyone was pretty much running high on the energy they had stuffed themselves with. Almost running around the room like two-year-old toddlers. She really should have expected something like this to happen.

She was once again going through her presentation, trying to commit most of it to memory when a small cluster of boys in the back of the classroom caught her attention.

They had gathered up in a tight circle, whispering about something that Tsuna was too far away to hear, but she was sure they were whispering about her if the looks she could practically feel digging into her back were anything to go by.¨

Seriously… some people just didn't have lives.

Suddenly, the group parted.

There stood Takahashi, one of her more relentless bullies from the Athletic division, his face plastered into an almost permanent smirk as he slowly began to raise what could only be a 21st-century gun, its barrel pointing directly at her.

Tsuna would later be proud to say that her blood only froze for a split second before the logical part of her brain kicked in and calmed her down.

"I'm tired of your face Dame-Tsuna," Takahashi said with a deep wannabe-menacing voice. "Just die already."

In normal circumstances, the sight of a gun should have frightened everyone. But seeing as it was a 21st-century gun that looked like it was in pristine condition, and after throwing a look around her at the rest of her classmates, she found some of them snickering into their hands in a lame attempt to try and look scared at the sight of the weapon.

So this was just a lame attempt to scare her then…

Frickin' bullies.

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna turned back to her screen, returning to casually swiping her fingertips over the screen.

This, however, didn't seem to sit well with Takahashi.

Growling, the boy stomped over to Tsuna's desk, grabbing said girl by her arm and yanked her up to her feet, forcing the barrel of the gun under her jaw.

"PAY ATTENTION TO ME YOU USELESS PIECE OF TRASH!"

Much to his surprise, however, Tsuna's face remained stoic.

"Hey, stop that!"

All sound in the classroom stopped at the sudden commanding voice, all eyes snapping towards the unspoken leader of the first year Athletic division, Yamamoto Takeshi, getting up from his own seat, a never before seen serious look in his eyes as he took his place behind Tsuna, glaring down at Takahashi.

He was not amused by their classmate's actions.

"You're taking this a little too far Takahashi." The star athlete practically growled eyes narrowed.

Glancing at the athlete from the corner of her eye, Tsuna couldn't help but think that maybe it simply because of this tiny little reason that her bullies had become much more brutal in their advances towards her.

Alright, it may not be such a tiny little reason…

Suddenly having one of the most popular boys in school acting nice towards the most bullied person in school is definitely one way to capture the wrong kind of attention if you've got the luck of Sawada Tsunako.

Many believed that she was forcing him into acting that way towards her, but she'd much rather have him ignore her if everyone would bully her even more than before.

Why did _that_ have to happen?

* * *

 _March 27_

 _Friday 2215_

 _Tsuna had been walking out of the local school supply and uniform store, her arms weighed down by the shopping bags she'd just had filled up at the counter._

 _Her mother had been with her when she'd first gone in, but shortly before they were to pay for the things, Nana had a call from her assistant Ogata Sakura, a poor panicky woman who freaks out if she accidentally applies icing on the wrong side of the cake._

 _Anyway, Nana had to leave and so, Tsuna was left alone to carry all of her shopping home._

 _It was when she was walking through the shopping district that something suddenly ran into her. Usually, these kinds of things didn't get more than a muted groan from her when in school, but this wasn't school, this was in town, she didn't have her usual walls up here and so, the collision resulted in her letting out a cry of mixed pain and surprise as she suddenly found herself on the asphalt._

 _A stinging sensation raced up her arms and knees, telling Tsuna that her skin had been scraped open._

 _Great, just great._

 _She couldn't help the groan that slipped out of her throat._

 _With her luck, the one that had run into her would actually cherish the pain she was in._

 _Looking around, Tsuna had to keep herself from letting out yet another groan, only this time more an annoyance than pain._

 _All of her things… everything that she had just gone through the trouble of getting, were now scattered out all over the asphalt around her, the only thing keeping the clothes from getting dirty being the plastic packaging they were in._

 _Thankfully, it didn't look as though anything was broken._

 _Tsuna was so caught up in her own thoughts that the sound of a familiar voice breaking through the surrounding white noise almost made her jump out of her skin._

 _"Oh stars, are you alright?!"_

 _What threw Tsuna off the most wasn't that the voice sounded familiar, but that it actually sounded genuinely worried._

 _Worried, for her?_

 _Well… there's got to be a first for everything._

 _Slowly, Tsuna used her arms to peel herself off of the asphalt, carefully adjusting her hands so that she scraped palms wouldn't take the brunt of the pressure before brushing her messy hair behind her ear and brushing as much dirt that could have gotten onto her off._

 _She didn't know why she bothered really._

 _It's 2215 for heaven's sake, there is barely a speck of dirt on both the paved grounds and buildings._

 _Thankfully, the buildings weren't pure white and shiny like they are usually portrayed in the Sci-Fi movies from the 21st century. Instead, they were painted in the softer pastel colorings and sported non-reflective windows where the buildings were closer knit. Even the sun is no longer white in the sky, having long since regained its original yellow color thanks to the air and water purification stations littered in secret locations all over the globe, the sun is… well, still the sun, and is thus still very blinding even if it is no longer as dangerous as it once were._

 _"Y-yeah… I'm fine." Tsuna answered quietly, keeping her back turned to the owner of the voice as she looked out in dismay over her sea of scattered belongings._

 _For a moment, there was complete silence between them, but then…_

 _"Sawada?"_

 _The voice didn't even bother hiding the absolute shock in his voice._

 _Suddenly, something inside Tsuna's mind clicked into place._

 _She now realized why that voice sounded familiar, knowing very well where she'd heard it before._

 _Every day for as long as her memory reached._

 _Slowly, every muscle in her tiny body tensed up as she forced herself to turn around, raising her head to look into the face of the person that had so violently crashed into her._

 _"Yamamoto… Takeshi…?"_

 _For a moment, the two of them just stared at one another, then, the athlete finally found his voice._

 _"I am so, so sorry." He said, getting down on his knees as he looked over the scrapes now littering her skin, a concerned frown etched into his eyebrows. "I should have watched where I was running."_

 _Tsuna could only stare at him, unsure of what she should do._

 _She hasn't opened her mouth around her classmates for several years, and now, one of the schools most popular boys was crouching in front of her and sounding genuinely concerned for her._

 _This just… doesn't… happen._

 _He must have noticed her staring, a sigh escaping his mouth as he began picking up her rings and stuffing them into her upturned bags._

 _"Right, not talking."_

 _The sight of Yamamoto Takeshi picking up her things of his own will force the words out of her throat._

 _"What are you doing?"_

 _Pausing for a moment, Yamamoto looked up at her, eyebrow raised._

 _"What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked, holding up the one bag that he had already finished packing._

 _For a moment, Tsuna couldn't find the words. Not that that was anything new, oral communication has never been one of her strong points, even when she still talked to people._

 _Swallowing, Tsuna braced herself._

 _"People… doesn't just help me like that."_

 _For a split second, Yamamoto stopped moving, almost frozen in place before quietly continuing._

 _Once everything was back in the bags, the athlete turned back towards her, his eyes hovering over each and every one of her scrapes. They didn't look too bad, none of them actually bleeding, but they were still there, and they were probably stinging something terribly._

 _Sighing, he scratched the back of his neck._

 _"Do you have anything to treat those scrapes with?" he asked, looking at her with a soft expression._

 _Tsuna frowned at the question._

 _"Why are you asking?"_

 _Yamamoto groaned at her, rolling his eyes as he grabbed her by the wrist, turning her hand around to look at the scrape marring her tiny little hand. It truly looked tiny too, almost dwarfed compared to his own._

 _"Do you have one or not?" he groaned, glancing up at her._

 _Sighing, Tsuna reached into the bag still hanging from her shoulder._

 _"I always do." She answered, pulling out a small first-aid kit._

 _Not even bothering to ask why she would have one, to begin with, Yamamoto snatched the kit from her, unzipping it to reveal the supplies inside of it, picking through the different objects with something of a clueless expression on his face._

 _"What are you doing?" Tsuna asked, narrowing her eyes as Yamamoto plucked a bottle of disinfectant from the small pack._

 _Yamamoto groaned again._

 _"What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked, awkwardly weighing the bottle in his hand, obviously unsure what he's supposed to do with that particular type of disinfectant, fingering the cotton balls._

 _"Well, you're doing it wrong." Tsuna quickly snatched the bottle from his hand, expertly wetting one of the cotton balls and went to dabbing them over the scrape._

 _She was forced to stop when the cotton was snatched from her fingers._

 _"You're… pretty used to this, aren't you?" Yamamoto asked, sounding quite awkward as he picked up from where Tsuna had left off._

 _"Why do you care?" Tsuna asked, leaning back against the one hand that wasn't scraped._

 _This made Yamamoto freeze up again._

 _"Sawada…" he sighed rather heavily, resuming in treating the scrapes, wrapping them up in bandages or covering them with bio-fabric as he judged the size of the scrape needed. He glanced up at her. "We've been classmates since preschool."_

 _Tsuna rolled her eyes at his words._

 _"Yes, and you haven't exactly paid much attention to me before." She lifted up her hand, adjusting the bandage in a way that wouldn't as easily unravel the second she started moving again._

 _Yamamoto sighed, tightening the bandage around her knee._

 _"Can you blame me?" he asked lightly. "You don't really appear to be the warmest of people in class." He shook his head lightly, briefly allowing his eyes to meet hers before he returned his attention to what he was doing. "You've never spoken to anyone for as long as I can remember."_

 _Tsuna rolled her eyes._

 _"Can_ you _blame_ me _?" she asked, voice dry. "No one has ever really talked to me without some sort of insult planned." She picked up another cotton ball, handing it to the athlete. "So I just stopped talking to people altogether."_

 _For a moment, Yamamoto just looked at her, the cotton lying completely forgotten in his palm._

 _"Sawada…" he whispered._

 _Tsuna just shook her head, taking the cotton back as she finished up the very last scrape._

 _"It's done." She declared, getting up from the ground._

 _"Sawada," Yamamoto spoke up again, more assured this time, grabbing onto her wrist as he too got off of the ground, staring her straight in the eyes._

 _The sudden touch made Tsuna flinch, unexpected pain shooting through her arm, making her yank her wrist right out of his grip, it was more out of reflex than anything._

 _For a moment, Yamamoto just stood there, still as a statue, staring wide-eyed at Tsuna as she clutched her wrist._

 _She was too unused to physical contact for that._

 _"What?" Tsuna asked, shaking her head before opening her mouth._

 _Taking a deep breath, Yamamoto scratched the back of his neck._

 _"If you'd let me…" he muttered, glancing around before his eyes once again found Tsuna's. "I'd like to get to know you."_

 _For a moment, the two of them just stared at one another, neither of them quite sure how to continue._

 _Finally, Tsuna tilted her head to the side._

 _"Really?"_

 _Yamamoto swallowed again._

 _"Like I said…" he paused, trying to collect his words. "We've been classmates since preschool…" he trailed off, hoping that she'd understand what he was trying to say._

 _Tsuna's eyes found the ground._

 _"And I'd be surprised if we weren't again." She finished for him, optioning to pick her bags up from the asphalt than actually looking at him._

 _"Exactly." Yamamoto agreed, sounding a lot more excited than before, his mouth quirking upward into more of a smile than the sheepish look he'd sported before. "We could at least try to get to know one another for once."_

 _Tsuna's fingers clenched around the handles of her bags, lower lip caught between her teeth as she mulled the suggestion over._

 _This wasn't something that had ever happened to her before._

 _At least… not that she could remember._

 _But… she figured it couldn't be…_

 _"Alright…" she finally breathed, glancing up at the athlete. "But just because you actually asked me."_

 _The smile that greeted her at her words served as the indicator that she'd made the right decision._

 _So happy... so genuinely relieved._

 _She couldn't possibly go wrong with this, could she?_

 _"I'll see you Wednesday then?" Yamamoto asked, taking a few steps away from her, smile still playing on his mouth._

 _Slowly, Tsuna allowed her head to bob into a nod._

 _"Wednesday."_

 _Slowly, she turned around and walked away._

 _"By the way Swada!" freezing, Tsuna slowly turned back around to face the athlete, who's usual heart-breaking smile was once again plastered over his handsome face._

 _She gave him an expectant look._

 _"You should talk more often." The words shocked her eyes wide. You've got a nice voice."_

 _And with that said, he turned back around, leaving Tsuna standing there, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks, turning her pale skin rosy in color._

* * *

Ever since school started Yamamoto has done almost everything he could to spend time with Tsuna, and this has only served to freak out Tsuna on multiple levels.

And not only that apparently.

Seeing Yamamoto serious was a very rare thing as he usually smiled at everything, so seeing him with his eyes narrowed in actual serious anger, practically glaring at his shorter classmate was a few thing for everyone. A new thing that, apparently, no one in the particularly liked seeing.

"Calm down Takeshi…" Takahashi breathed, lowering the gun and taking a step away from Tsuna.

Letting out a nervous laugh, Takahashi gestured with the gun in his hand, still pointing it in Tsuna's direction.

"It's only a prop from a historical drama my uncle was starring in." he held out the gun, tightening his fingers around the trigger. "It only fires blanks, see." And so, he pulled the trigger.

 **BANG!**

* * *

Inside of the crescent bakery, a plate slipped out of Sawada Nana's hands, crashing against the floor.

* * *

 **A/N: I AM DONE!**

 **The first chapter is DONE!**

 **I am feeling so... sick. Because I actually am sick and is using my Sick leave from school to write fanfictions. But I am also proud that I actually did the thing, I actually finished the thing, and now people can actually read the thing.**

 **I hope you like it, tell me what you think, and I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as I can.**

 **Her ladyship wishes you all her love.**


	2. Scene 2: The frailty of Humanity

**A/N: EDITED 17-09-18**

 **Alright, you beautiful humans, you're lucky that I am a fucking fast writer.  
**

 **I assume some of you have noticed that the first chapter was actually pretty similar to "it's in her blood" and this one will be too, I know that much. The next chapter, however, will bring a lot more new stuff to the story and scenes that had completely eluded me when I first started writing on the first version, so the next chapter may take a little longer to get out, but... yeah.**

 **Thank you guys so much for the response I've received for the first chapter, It's just... I can't even.**

 **ApoptoxinWorshipper, your comment made me cry, thank you for bowing ( _insert frantic fangirl giggle_ )**

 **I hope you like this chapter, I actually discovered that I turned the first chapter of the first version into two chapters, which just speaks volumes on just how much I wanted to add to the story.**

 **So, please.**

 **Enjoy ( _i sound like a waiter_ ).**

* * *

 **Scene 2:**

 **The frailty of Humanity**

The silence that followed that cringe-worthy sound was even more deafening than the sound itself. Even though it didn't sound at all like a 21st century actually sounded on the dramas, the sound itself had been rather loud and had come so suddenly that the class couldn't find the words anymore.

Takahashi himself looked around the room with a slight smile on his face.

"You see?" he asked, waving the gun in his hand as if that would prove just how harmless it actually was. "Harmless."

Not one eye was turned to Tsuna.

They probably should have been.

Slowly, said girl removed the hand that had, on reflex, flown to clutch at the side of her abdomen, her eyes slowly lowering down to her palm, and much to her horror, she found her fingers covered in a thick, red liquid.

Eyes widening, Tsuna suddenly realized just how hard it was to take a proper breath.

"Blood…" she murmured over the silence.

Because of the state of the class, even such a low voice managed to carry out over the whole room. Especially since it was the first word the absolute majority of them had ever heard her say.

As if on cue, all eyes turned towards her at the same time, just in time to see her knees give out under her weight, forcing her to fall backwards in what probably would have been a very uncomfortable position, or even crashing into the desks behind her, had Yamamoto not still been standing behind her and thus quickly caught her in his arms, gently turning her around as he noticed her breaths starting to come out in hiccups.

He stared down at her stomach, at the pure white fabric of her blouse, and the thick red liquid that was quickly being soaked into it.

"Sawada?" he asked rather frantically as he carefully maneuvered her tiny body to lie on her back, her entire form shaking at the immense effort of simply taking one breath. He cupped his hands over the wound, frantically trying to keep her from bleeding out, but if the blank had pierced an organ, that wouldn't help for long. "Sawada, stay with me." He practically pleaded, staring down at her face.

Her eyes were still open, but as he looked at them, the pain was starting to cloud over the previous glow they had had.

All around them, everyone was in a state of panic.

The students were staring, screaming, shaking one another as they all tried to decide what to do.

Apparently, calling the hospital was too hard for them to figure out.

The worst one off in the situation, however, was Takahashi.

For a long moment, he just stared at Tsuna, at the two large hand cupped over the white blouse that was now turning red at a much slower rate than before. His hand fell at his side, the prop gun falling out of his hand and landing on the tiled floor with a clatter that was swallowed up in the chaos surrounding him.

"What is going on here?"

Everyone in the classroom absolutely froze at the sound of the cold voice that they had all been forced to learn how to distinguish among a thousand of others ever since middle-school. Yamamoto was the only one brave enough to look up at the speaker.

Hibari Kyoya, head prefect of Namimori high and number one law enforcer of the building looked around the room with an expression that promised pain for whoever had caused the chaos.

Then… his eyes fell on the petite girl on the floor, and his expression turned absolutely murderous.

Even though the head prefect was notably on the short side, everyone shrunk away from him when his attention snapped towards the surrounding crowd, not even bothering to address the one person obviously trying to save the life of the one member of the student body.

"Explain." He ordered, his voice even colder than before if that was even possible.

That was the moment Takahashi's legs gave out on him, his brain seemingly not having to even register the head prefects presence as his eyes were still locked on Tsuna's quivering frame, and the prop gun still lay on the floor, not too far away from Takahashi's leg.

That was all the explanation Hibari seemed to need.

Quickly, Hibari fished out his sleep black obsidian type gem-phone apparently out of thin air. No one were within the line of sight to notice him dialing any form of number, they just saw him press the gem to his ear and waited for the call to connect. He worked fast that prefect.

His eyes never once left the pair of hands covering Tsuna's bleeding wound, even though his free hand seemed to be itching to magically produce his weaponry, this was not the time to make more victims. If he did, it would probably take longer for Tsuna to get any form of help, and at the moment, every minute she was still breathing was golden.

After a short, stiff conversation, Hibari ended the call and stuffed his gem away as she stalked over to the girl whose life was slowly draining out of her, his eyes hidden behind his pitch black bangs.

Crouching down opposite Yamamoto, the athlete was shocked then the prefect put his hand on his, though his attention was firmly locked onto the girl, his free hand reaching out to gently cup Tsuna's clammy cheek, almost forcing her to turn her hazy gaze towards him.

"The ambulance will be here in five minutes." He said, his voice the only thing steady in the room, leaving no room for anyone to tell him that no one could predict exactly when an ambulance would arrive. He probably wouldn't allow that either way. "You think you can hold on to then herbivore?"

Yamamoto looked at the prefect in confusion.

Because he was so close to him, he could clearly hear the tone of actual gentle concern in his voice, and the look in his eyes as he said those words…

No, he must be imagining things.

But… even the one word he usually used to demean people with was spoken with endearment…

No!

Imagination, it had to be his imagination.

For a frighteningly long moment, Hibari got no response from her. Then, her lips moved.

"I'll… try…"

The most gentle smirk Yamamoto has ever seen crawled onto Hibari's mouth.

"You're stronger than you look herbivore." He complimented with uncharacteristic gentleness. "Most people wouldn't be able to keep out of delusion in this state." His hand brushed over her mess of hair, moving her bangs away from her sweat covered face.

Loosely, she shook her head.

"Not… strong…" Tsuna denied weakly. "Used… to… pain."

And it was true.

As much as Yamamoto wished to deny it, it was true.

He'd seen her limping home, the bruises forming on her pale skin, and most, if not all, originating from her classmates becoming tired of harassing her with words alone, and thus took to physically hurting her. Pushing her down the stairs, shoving her into walls or lockers, pulling her hair, throwing her to the floor. Anything they could possibly think of that would help them vent their frustrations one way of the other made its way to her.

Both she and Yamamoto were glad that none of it had actually gotten sexual.

Probably because they believed her to be too disgusting for that kind of thing. Which was mean, but none the less a blessing in Tsuna's position.

This thought made Yamamoto feel bad.

He'd never actually been there when any of this abuse happened, but he felt as though he should have done something to at least try and put a stop to it.

Tsuna didn't deserve anything that life put her through.

Yamamoto watched as a look of silent, comprehensive fury spread across Hibari's face before he took a deep, calming breath and closed his steel gray eyes.

He turned his attention to Yamamoto.

"Keep up the pressure on her wound." He instructed. "It's going to give her a few extra minutes at least."

His steel gaze suddenly snapped down to where his own hands were resting on top of Yamamoto's, and he proceeded to retreat his limbs as though the touch of Yamamoto's skin had burnt him.

Quickly, Hibari stood up with a spin, turning him towards the rest of the class, his hard eyes burning with rage that he didn't even bother to try and keep hidden.

"I will not tolerate bullying inside my school." He growled, glaring at everyone around her. His voice had been rather quiet, but just like Tsuna's one word, he was heard by each and every one of them, making their blood freeze over in their veins, and forcing 80% of the students to take a step backward.

These were the students that had actively taken part of the bullying at one part or another.

The ones that hadn't, were easily spotted.

Sasagawa Kyoko almost ran to Tsuna's side, awkwardly falling to her knees at Tsuna's head, trying to navigate her skirt so that it wouldn't show off too much of her legs. Her hands found their way into the girl's hair, gently stroking her over her clammy skin, muttering as many soothing words as she could.

Kurokawa Hana had hesitated before she too had fallen to the floor at Tsuna's shoulder, taking the girl's hand as she muttered to the girl to "prove women were stronger than that".

Class president Kondou Yuki had calmly walked over, carefully adjusting Tsuna's position so that she lay in the most comfortable position possible before she set to packing up Tsuna's things, careful not to actually look at anything for too long before settling the finished bag at Yamamoto's desk at his request.

He would take it to her when she woke up.

The final person was the most surprising one.

It was one of the male students that have shared Tsuna's ballet class since the start of the school year. Going by the name of Fujitaka Sasuke, the ballet dancer had stood there staring at Tsuna, hands clenched and shaking at his sides before he had just as shakily found his legs moving towards Tsuna's trembling body, falling onto the floor where Hibari had just been crouching and let his hands fall on top of Yamamoto's, adding additional pressure on the wound.

Hibari threw a glance back to the scene before he turned his attention to the rest of the class.

"I'll bite you to death."

* * *

By the time the ambulance arrived three minutes later, Hibari was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest and one eye permanently focused on the shell-shocked class trembling in the corner, silently thanking the heavens that the head prefect actually hadn't seriously hurt any one of them.

But then again, if he had, Tsuna probably wouldn't have been carried off by the paramedics as quickly as she had been.

Yamamoto and Fujitaka had both been a little reluctant to remove their hands from Tsuna, but the paramedics had been very convincing, and soo, they had wheeled Tsuna out of the building, leaving the remaining students to stare out the window as the ambulance drove away with their classmate.

The head prefect had actually gone with them, they not even bothering to tell him no as he just jumped into the vehicle and they sped away.

He probably wanted to personally make sure that Sawada got the best treatment possible.

Tsuna had passed out about a minute before they had arrived, and this had made many of them almost panic, but Kyoko, the angel, had been caring enough to keep her fingers almost permanently planted on Tsuna's jugular vein, keeping track of her pulse to ensure them all that her heart was still beating.

It had been tricky to pry her away from Tsuna's side as well.

It had been one of the most traumatic experiences the class had ever gone through, something that would most certainly automatically sign them up for individual visits to the therapist in the future.

One student desperately fighting for her life.

One student having to live with his joke backfiring on him.

Five students have desperately tried to make sure that the dying girl would survive for five looong minutes.

And a whole classroom of frightened students having to juggle the shock of having witnessed someone getting injured by a blank bullet and the fear of having to face the punishment of the scariest person in school. And it had been bullying that had landed them all in that position.

As the paramedics had disappeared with Hibari in tow, Yamamoto Takeshi had remained on his knees, staring intently at the blood-stained hands resting in his lap.

Yamamoto had never actually thought about just how fragile a life could be, why should he have? He was turning sixteen in just a few days! And now, he had been forced to experience actually holding such a fragile life in the palm of his calloused hands.

He never wanted to go through something so terrifying again.

The five students stood for themselves, Kyoko's hands resting on Yamamoto's shoulders, Hana staring out the window after the retreating ambulance, Kondou having wrapped her arms around Fujitaka's shoulders, them being childhood friends keeping this from being too awkward.

They all tried to gain some strength from one another as they thought about what they had all been working towards just a few moments ago.

Keeping Sawada Tsunako alive.

Silently, and really without knowing it, all five of them silently agree on one thing.

From that moment on, they would work to stop bullying in their school.

They would do anything, and if what had just happened to Sawada Tsunako was anything to go by, then bullying can be a lot more dangerous than anyone would have liked to know.

* * *

Sawada's hands had been covered in flour when the call had arrived at the bakery.

She'd been forced to answer it through vocal commands, and thus the whole staff had gotten to hear the news of their irregular helper having wound up in the hospital emergency ward.

It hadn't taken much for them to convince Nana to leave, ensuring her that everything would be alright and she needed to be with her daughter right now.

And so, there she was, pacing in front of the operation door, it's red light blaring down at her, mocking her with its existence.

She didn't want to know that her daughter was still being operated on, she wanted to know what the hell happened to her in the first place and whether or not she would survive the night!

What would she tell Iemitsu if she didn't make it?

When she'd first arrived at the hospital, she'd been greeted by one of the prefects from Tsuna's school, telling her where to find her daughter before he had left to deal with the situation he had most likely left Tsuna's class in by getting into the ambulance.

Letting out a shaky breath, Nana sank into one of the chairs by the wall, burying her face in her hands.

She should have listened to her instincts that morning.

She shouldn't have let her daughter leave the house.

If she'd just been more confident in her motherly intuition, none of this would have happened!

Nana struggled to keep herself from crying.

Finally, after what felt like ages, The red light went out from above the door.

Nana practically flew to her feet as the doors opened and a doctor walked out, removing the rubber gloves from his hands.

His eyes fell on Nana.

"Mrs. Sawada?" he asked with a breath.

"Yes," Nana answered, hands clenched in front of her chest.

The doctor looked as though he was bracing himself for an incoming punch.

"We have done what we could to the hole in your daughter's stomach." Nana's face paled drastically. Hole? What hole? Why would there be a hole in her daughter's stomach? "But I'm afraid she's lost too much blood, so she'll be out of it for a while as her body get's used to the transfusion."

Nana couldn't take it anymore.

"What happened to her?!" she almost screamed, knowing that should she actually scream in this building, she would most likely get thrown out.

The doctor put a hand in his pockets.

"It would appear that one of her classmates brought a prop gun to school for a school assignment and wasn't aware that even a blank bullet can cause considerable damage if fired at a close enough distance."

Nana's hands found her mouth, forcing herself to keep the tears in.

Swallowing, she looked up at the doctor.

"Can I see her?"

The doctor nodded slowly and guided Nana through the doors.

* * *

Nana had never seen her daughter look so weak.

Lying on the operation table with her messy hair fanning out around her, her skin paler than she's ever seen and beads of sweat still clinging onto her face.

It was a frighteningly long time before Nana finally spotted the light rise and fall of her daughter's chest underneath the thin blanket covering her petite body.

She didn't look anything like the strong-willed girl she'd raised.

This girl looked more like a porcelain doll that's been dumped into a pool of water.

Cautiously, Nana reached out to stroke her daughter over the cheek.

"Tsuna-chan?" she whispered, hoping for some form of response. "Tsuna-chan can you hear me?"

It was then that it happened.

 **CRACK!**

It was like the sound of metal breaking, echoing through the room for a split second before all hell broke loose.

It had all started when Nana suddenly felt as though her palm touching her daughter's cheek was on fire, and then Tsuna's whole body erupted into violent spastic movements, thrashing around on the operation table as though she were a fish that had just been taken out of the water.

Nana had been thrown out of the room faster than she'd had the time to blink.

For a moment, she just stood there, staring down at her palm and the red color it had taken on from the contact of her daughter's skin.

She started shaking.

This couldn't happen, it just couldn't.

She was too young, it just couldn't be read, Nana wouldn't believe it.

She told herself that, and yet, her hand slid down into her pocket to retrieve her gem-phone as her feet steered her out of the building.

* * *

Inside of a darkened room, an elderly man watched with wide eyes as a flame flickering inside of a transparent crystal ball roared into a blazing inferno.

It was time.

* * *

 ** _April 20_**

 ** _Monday 2215_**

Tsuna let out a weak groan as she forced her eyes open.

The first thing that hit her was the sheer brightness of the room, blinding her for a split second before she blinked the light away, the second thing was the pressure surrounding her hand. The last thing, however, was the thing that had almost sent her shooting out of the stiff bed she was lying in.

Before, she had felt as though her body hadn't belonged to her, as though she'd have been wearing a comedically large costume of a school-mascot, several sizes for her to comfortably walk around in, way too heavy for someone of her stature to have on her shoulders, and she also suspected that she might have been severely allergic to the material of which the costume had been made out of. But now…

Never mind the almost ghost-like pain in her stomach, she felt as though someone had finally noticed her predicament with the costume and thus had decided to exchange it for one that was more her size. It was still a few sizes too big, way too heavy and obviously made out of the same material as the first one, but she found that she wasn't quite as bothered by her own body as she'd been before. She tentatively tried to move her limbs to see if anything was wrong with her, but all she found was the pressure around her one hand keeping her arm in place, otherwise, she could find no problems with her motions, aside from her one attempt to move her back sending white-hot pain shooting through her stomach.

The events from the classroom came flooding back to her at the sensation.

She let out another groan.

Of course, of course, she would wound up getting mortally wounded by a prop gun.

When was her bad luck going to turn around?

Slowly, mindful of the wound in her stomach, Tsuna lifted herself off of the mattress, looking down at whatever had weighed down her hand so much.

There was her mother, lying on the mattress from where she was sitting in the visitor's chair and clutching onto her hand as though her life depended on it.

Seeing her mothers usually perfectly maintained hair looking more like her own, Tsuna flashed back to the last time she'd seen her mother, and more importantly, what she'd said.

She sighed.

"Looks like you were right Mom." She whispered, slightly surprised to find nothing wrong with her voice apart from the natural hoarseness that came with the lack of use.

Gently, Tsuna allowed her hand to slide out of her mother's grip, allowing her fingers to stroke over her mother's chocolate strands.

Tsuna couldn't remember the last time she had just had a quiet moment with her mother like this, or even the last time she'd had physical contact with any of her parents.

When was the last time she'd been hugged?

And feeling the grease under her hand, when was the last time her mother had showered?

At the touch of her hand, Nana began to stiffen.

Opening her eyes, Nana was met with those identical pairs of light brown eyes that she had been waiting almost three whole days to see again whilst at her daughter's side. She had only left the hospital to get some sleep and food into her stomach, even the frantic Sakura had been understanding enough to not call Nana in a panic during this time.

"Tsuna-chan!" Nana called out in happiness, tears streaming down her face as she threw her arms around her daughter's neck, hugging her as close to her chest as she allowed herself, fearing that her daughters wound would re-open should she be too violent.

It took a moment before Nana finally let go of Tsuna, sliding back down into the chair as she wiped away the tears from her rosy cheeks.

As Nana filled Tsuna in on what the doctors had said about her needing to stay in bed for a few days before they could apply skin-grafting over the stitches after which point it'd be safer for her to move around without the doctors fearing she might tear the stitching, Tsuna looked around the room, and to her surprise, there were two flower bouquets in there.

Nana explained to her that Takahashi had been so devastated by what had happened that he and his family has sent her flowers from their shop.

Purple Hyacinth's to be exact.

At Tsuna's confused expression, Nana explained that the purple Hyacinth mean "I'm sorry, please forgive me, and sorrow" in the flower language. The flower itself was very beautiful in Tsuna's eyes, and it was kind of nice to have received flowers from someone, and for one of her bullies to have felt back enough for what they had done for them to have actually decided to apologize in such a thoughtful way.

Then again, no one had ever apologized to her before, so that in itself was a nice change.

It was the other bouquet that had really warmed her heart, however.

Nana hadn't known them, but there had been a charming young man with dark brown hair that had come in the day before with his arms filled with dark red roses. Said roses were now in a vase at her bedside table, filling her surroundings with the most lovely scent.

Tsuna reached out her hand, allowing her fingertips to brush over the deep red petals of the closest rose, desperately trying to recall the face of the boy that had given them to her in the first place.

* * *

 ** _April 21_**

 ** _Tuesday 2215_**

Tsuna silently cursed the hospital policy of no foreign technology activities within the walls as she turned yet another page in one of the many books her mother had brought her.

She was well aware that humanity was practically locked to the moving screens nowadays, but Nana really had no idea what books Tsuna liked to read, so now she was stuck flicking through the pages of one of the most cringe-worthy "romance" novels Tsuna has ever had the misfortune to get her hands on.

She had nothing against romance, so long as it was a realistic romance, and falling in love with a vampire that did little more than constantly stare at you was definitely not romance.

She'd much rather be reading a book of concept art for a fantasy movie right now, at least that would give her inspiration for future paintings and actually keep her interest.

She'd been so locked in her own thoughts that she'd almost missed the sound of the door opening.

"Yo, Sawada."

The sound of that familiar voice almost made Tsuna drop her book.

Now that she thought back at it, she probably should have allowed that book to drop. Instead, she removed her eyes from the pages and turned her attention to the fifteen-year-old standing in the doorway.

Actually, he'd be turning sixteen in three days, wouldn't he?

"Yamamoto-san?" she asked uncertainly, not even bothering to mark her page in the book before almost snapping it shut in front of her, placing it on the table next to the roses that had somehow managed to keep blooming as she allowed herself to be distracted from that incredibly horrible read.

The athlete was smiling brightly at her as he stalked into the room.

Tsuna couldn't help but notice that there was something tucked under his arm…

"Your Mom called the shop said you woke up." He explained softly, settling down on the visitor's chair next to Tsuna as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Of course, this statement confused Tsuna.

Sure, Yamamoto has almost gone out of his way to being nice to her the past few weeks, but Nana didn't know about that, so why would her mother call Yamamoto's father's shop to tell them she's woken up?

"She… did?" Tsuna found herself asking tentatively, anxiously rubbing her hands together over the sheets.

"Yup." The athlete answered with a bright smile, as though that would answer everything. He leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable as he looked Tsuna over. "So, how are we feeling?"

Tsuna tried to quell the unease she felt at the question.

It had been strange enough when Yamamoto had started going almost out of his way to being nice to her but was it really necessary for him to visit her in the hospital as well? It only made her rub her hands even harder, the pain helping her confirm that she really was awake and that this wasn't some kind of morphine-induced dream.

Not that she was on any morphine.

Hospitals had exchanged that for another substance that eased the pain on a much more thorough level without having to muddle-up the brain as it did so. And even so, Tsuna wasn't in much need of that, seeing as she wound only hurt whenever she moved around either too much or too quickly.

Something that she managed to do right now.

Sitting up in the bed, Tsuna had completely forgotten herself in her confusion, the pain shooting through her stomach reminded her by forcing her to double over, her hand clutching at the stitching.

"Hey!" Yamamoto exclaimed, almost shooting out of the chair to grab her by the shoulders, carefully laying her back down against the pillows. "Careful."

Staring up at the ceiling, Tsuna thought back at the question the athlete had asked her, slowly waiting for the pain to ebb away before she finally decided to open her mouth.

"Honestly…" she muttered, almost shocking Yamamoto as she did, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "I'm feeling better than I have in years."

For a moment, Yamamoto looked at her in confusion, before the look morphed into an expression of disbelief.

"Really?"

Tsuna rolled her eyes, taking a deep breath as she slowly pulled her legs up to her chest, allowing her head to rest on top of her knees in one of the first successful attempts to fold herself in threes since she was shot.

She let her eyes rest on the athlete.

"Wound aside," Tsuna mumbled, taking a deep breath as she tilted her head slightly to the side. "I'm feeling better than I have in years."

Now, Yamamoto just looked confused.

He somehow looked very different than he did when surrounded by their fellow classmates.

She decided to finally put the poor boy out of his misery.

"My body feels more like mine now."

As she expected, Yamamoto looked even more confused than he did before.

"And it didn't before?" he slowly asked after a moment of silence.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna slowly shook her head, messy strands of hair falling in front of her eyes as she allowed her legs to slide just a bit away from her chest.

She locked her eyes with the athlete, her face stone-cold serious.

"No."

For a moment, the two of them just sat in silence, not looking at one another as they thought over the situation in their heads.

Who would have thought that either of them would be there?

This sparked a question inside Tsuna's mind.

Awkwardly turning towards her classmate, she cleared her throat, succeeding in catching his attention.

"Can I ask you something, Yamamoto-san?" she asked timidly.

Seeing her so uncomfortable brought a reassuring smile to Yamamoto's mouth, hoping it would make it easier for her to talk to him.

He never seemed to have a problem talking to her.

"Shoot." It's wasn't until just after he had said it that he realized just how insensitive that word probably was to her, his tanned face paling as the realization hit him.

The word brought a rather uncomfortable look to the young man's face. Groaning in shame, he scratched the back of his neck, looking at her in shamed apologies.

Tsuna just shook her head, swallowing hard as she gathered up the courage to actually ask the question that was burning away at her brain, worried about the possibility that she might insult him.

"Why are you here?"

It may have sounded slightly as if she was complaining, but they both knew that it was more or less a valid question. Whilst Yamamoto may have started to pay more attention to her very existence for the past couple of weeks, he'd never really done anything more than smile and talk to her, anytime before that he had barely looked her way.

Huh… that was a rather sad thought that they have shared the exact same class since middle-school, same school building since they were six. It was like someone was desperately trying to make them interact, and yet nothing had come from their plans, and now Tsuna was in a hospital bed.

Sighing heavily, Yamamoto appeared to be reaching out for Tsuna's hand, only he stopped himself before his fingertips had the chance to brush against her skin.

Fingers clenching, he retracted his limp.

"Sawada…" he sighed, one of his hands scratching at the back of his neck, his fingers weaving into the ruffled black locks at the nape of his neck. "I think it's impossible for someone to have someone else's blood on their hands without feeling the need to be close to the person." He seemed to freeze for a moment, thinking over his words before he started speaking again at a much more hurried pace. "Unless of course, you were the one that shed the blood in the first place, then I really have no idea what you would feel."

Realization dawned in Tsuna's light brown eyes, a stark contrast to his pondering hazel ones.

"You mean…" she swallowed hard, trying to force her words out. "You mean that… you were the one who…" she couldn't finish the sentence.

"I was the one who pressed down on your wound until the paramedics arrived, yes," Yamamoto admitted, once again locking his eyes her hers. Then, a thoughtful look passed over his face. "Well… me and that Fujitaka guy."

Tsuna frowned.

Fujitaka?

She knew that name… where did she know that name?

For a long moment, the two of them just stared at one another.

It was at that moment, Tsuna felt a strange connection to the athlete. It wasn't a romantic connection in the least, but she still felt like her life was somehow connected to his in a way.

She didn't know whether or not that connection had been there all the time and she just didn't know, or if it had come to being the moment he had put his hands on her bleeding stomach, but she knew, she just knew, at the back of her mind, that she was connected to this young man in a way that she had yet to figure out.

"Yamamoto-san…" she muttered, forcing the both of them out of their thoughts. "You saved my life."

This earned her a light laugh and yet another scratch at the back of the neck from Yamamoto.

"I… I guess I did… huh."

They remained there for a while, talking about whatever Yamamoto could think about.

The main subject was about just how school was coping since she was shot, and, according to Yamamoto, their whole class had gotten rightfully punished for everything they had done to her, most of them even loudly declaring that they would never bully another person so long as they lived again. But of course, both she and Yamamoto knew that that declaration wouldn't hold once their lives fell back to the way they were before they once again found that they had to take their frustrations out on something.

What Tsuna found the most relieving news, was that Takahashi had been suspended for his recklessness with the prop he'd brought. Yamamoto heard that he'd even pulled out of Namimori-high, and he would enroll in another school once he felt like he was ready for it.

Surprisingly, Tsuna found herself not dreading the thought of returning to school.

Something told her that her school life would be a lot easier to live once she was finally released from the white-painted walls that were constantly trying to blind her with just how bright they were when the sun hit them from the open windows. Whilst the outside buildings were painted in soft colors so as to not blinded people, the hospital obviously had no such qualms.

She was kind of looking forward to going back to school after so many days of locked up in this prison.

The two classmates had been talking for a few minutes when Tsuna's eyes fell on the something that had completely skipped her attention for several minutes.

It was a school bag, the one that had been tucked in under Yamamoto's arm when he had stepped into the room. It wasn't Yamamoto's own bad, she knew that. Yamamoto had a baseball patch sewn into the front. The bag was now leaning against one of the legs of the chair, just waiting for someone to notice it again.

Biting her lip, Tsuna made up her mind.

"What's that?" she found herself asking.

It had gotten a lot easier to talk to him, considering she hadn't done much talking to anyone in school for a long, long time, and now, here she was, conversing with one of the school's most popular boys as if it was one of the most natural things in the world to her.

Glancing down, Yamamoto's eyes widened.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" he exclaimed, leaning down to fish up the bag from the ground with expert swiftness.

He allowed the bag to fall into his lap, letting Tsuna see it clearly.

It was her school bag, the silver strap sporting a crystal bead with golden wires wrapped artistically around it tied to the zipper being the strongest indicator.

"Kondou packed up your things for you that day." He looked at her somewhat apologetically, obviously apologizing for someone going through her things without asking her first, but she didn't hold it against him. Someone had to take care of her things when she was out after all. Finally, he cleared his throat. "I figured you might want to have them until you can get out of this place." He fingered the handle of the bag, awkwardly clearing his throat. "Of course, I had to turn off your gem and mirror-screen because…" he waved a hand in the air. "Hospital."

Handing Tsuna the bad, he leaned back as he watched her almost frantically zipping it open, strap flying as she looked through her belongings.

Her eyes brightened suddenly, as she fished out a thick, black, leather-bound book sporting what looked like a golden sigil carved and painted into the leather. For a moment, she just sat there, letting her hand run over the detail of the cover, almost entranced at the sight of the object.

To be honest, Tsuna was quite surprised that she got to see this thing again.

Yamamoto watched the look in her eyes. It was such a pure, open expression, one that he had never seen on her before, one that he doubted anyone aside from her own parents had seen before.

"That important to you?" he asked, snatching Tsuna's attention away from the book.

Still smiling lightly, she nodded, turning back to the book.

She had always been worried about keeping her things in school, in case one of her bullies decided to go through her desk and think it to be a "funny prank" to destroy all of her belongings. So having them in front of her, looking like they hadn't been away from her line of vision at all, was a great relief to her.

Looking back at Yamamoto, Tsuna gave him the biggest, most genuine smile that she could ever remember giving anyone for several years.

"Thank you." She breathed, voice barely louder than a whisper.

Slightly taken aback at the sudden smile, Yamamoto had to shake his head before smiling right back at her.

"Don't mention it."

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound rang through the air, almost making Tsuna jump out of her skin.

Yamamoto's hand flew to his wrist where he had a special 21st century styled wristwatch strapped, his thumb jamming down on the screen that was blaring a bright blue light.

The noise immediately died down.

For a moment, Yamamoto just stared down at the annoying noise-maker, finally, he sighed in frustration, tapping on the screen to make sure that the alarm wouldn't start off again.

Grabbing his bag as he got up from the chair, Yamamoto looked down at Tsuna who was looking up at him with a questioning look in her light brown eyes.

"I got to go." The athlete stated, jerking his head in the direction of the door with a somewhat regretful tone to his voice. "Baseball practice starts in about half an hour so-"

"I get it." Tsuna cut him off, her hand raised with her palm facing him.

She was well aware of how much baseball meant to the boy, and she didn't want to be the thing that stood between him and doing the thing he obviously loved.

He smiled gratefully at her.

He shocked her by reaching out his arm, his hand landing on top of her birds-nest for hair and giving it a good ruffle and turned around to exit.

Only for him to pause in the doorway.

"By the way, Sawada."

Looking up from the sketchbook, Tsuna was met with the signature smile that for better or for worse had basically become associated with the athlete.

"You're really good at that." With that said, the athlete nodded down towards the sketch-book. His energetic smile turning more gentle before he gave her a small wave, and disappeared out the door, leaving the girl alone to stroke her hand over her book.

In the span of three days, high-school had actually managed to change her life around in the one way probably no one could have ever imagined. First, there was the mere factor that one of the schools most popular boys had started talking to her, and now she was lying in a hospital bed with a hole in her stomach with doctors currently checking out several tests to try and figure out why she was feeling differently in her own body.

Who would have thought that Tsuna would have had to get shot in the stomach before she got the chance to actually start living?

* * *

 **A/N: So... please tell me what you think and I'll be back with the next chapter as quickly as I can, or if I choose to hold it back until I've got a few more chapters finished because I'm evil like that.**

 **So yeah, I'll be seeing you.**

 **Your Ladyship.**


	3. Scene 3: Happy News

**A/N: EDITED 17/10/04**

 **Oh... my... god...  
**

 **100 followers in three days? Are you kidding me!?**

 **You humans... are absolutely amazing, I feel like I'm going to cry!**

 **Anyway. As I have gotten a few questions concerning this rewrite, I'm going to answer them here.**

 **Question: Is this going to be "it's in her blood" 2.0?**

 **Answer: Not really? Thought that entirely depends on how you look at it. In my opinion, it won't be considering events will change up, some will span over several chapters and some will happen earlier than they did before. Also, there will be several elements and foreshadows that will become much more relevant in "Act 2: Lost in Smoke".**

 **Oh, the plans I have for that...**

 **Question: Was making it take place during the 23rd century needed?**

 **Answer: ... that depends too.**

 **I bumped up the setting in time because of two reasons.**

 **1\. Technology. I can get away with a lot more fancy trinkets in both worlds this way.**

 **2\. A pet peeve. Did Primo really live 400 years ago (which really fits in with there being 10 generations of bosses)? But in like... every drawing with him and his guardians, he's wearing clothes from early 1800 (which is historically accurate as it was around that time that the Mafia really started to become a thing). So what did I do? I made myself a compromise.**

 **Btw people, I'm dropping hits and foreshadows all over this story, see if you can find them.**

 **Have fun.**

* * *

 **Scene 3:**

 **Happy News**

 ** _April 24_**

 ** _Friday 2215_**

It was drawing closer to the afternoon as Tsuna sat cross-legged on top of the bed, her leather-bound sketch-book folded up in front of her as she expertly moved her pen over the paper, only removing it every once in a while to lodge the but of the pen between her teeth, studying the picture that was slowly forming.

It was almost finished, just a few more touches to the shadowing.

Biting down on the pen sideways as a make-shift storage of sort, Tsuna exchanged her pinky, smudging some of the lines on the sketch, creating a much smoother transition from bright white to black.

Finally, she removed the pen from her mouth, hooking it in between her ring and middle finger as she held out the book in front of her, studying it with her self-critical eyes before nodding in satisfaction.

Carefully, she pulled the sketch from the book jacket, gently folding it over before putting it on top of the bedside table. There it would sit until it's future owner arrived for his almost daily visit.

However, when the doctor arrived through the door, Tsuna couldn't help but wonder why he was there.

She was scheduled for a skin grafting in just a few hours, officially released on Monday morning and thus was only required to a meeting with the doctors once a day, and yet, Dr. Kudo walked right into her room with a screen in his hand and the most peculiar expression on his face.

"What's wrong doctor?" Tsuna asked, slipping off of the bed with a grace that she hadn't been able to access previously. Thankfully, the pain in her stomach had faded away rather quickly, allowing her to move around much more smoothly than before, than ever in fact.

The doctor just gave her a smile.

"Nothing's wrong." He answered, stepping up to her as he activated his screen. "We just discovered what might be the cause of your newfound comfortability with your body." A smile started forming on his lips as he swiped his fingers over the screen.

This got Tsuna's attention.

"What is it?" she asked, almost cautiously.

Dr. Kudo tapped at the screen a handful of more times before he swiftly turned the screen around for her to see.

Two pictures were next to one another, it looked to be an x-ray of a brain, they were just about the same size, but Tsuna could tell that there was something different about them. She couldn't quite put her finger on how they were different but she could tell that they were.

"Your brain has started to partially develop what you've previously been lacking."

For a moment, Tsuna could just stare at the pictures, her mind trying to register just what she was being told at the moment.

The one thing that had thrown sticks in the wheel of her life with 100% accuracy for as long as she could remember, and it was starting to repair itself _now_?

Before Tsuna knew it, the tears were streaming down her cheeks, her heart pounding in her chest as almost overwhelming happiness flooded through her system. It wasn't until she realized that her breaths were coming out in labored hiccups and a hand landed on her back, trying to calm her down.

Sitting back on the bed, Tsuna furiously rubbed away the tears from her cheeks.

Dr. Kudo out the screen on the bed, instead, stuffing his hands into his pockets and pulled out two bottles of colorful pills, holding them out to the overwhelmed girl.

Shaking her head, Tsuna took the bottles from the doctor's hands, looking at them in confusion.

"What are these for?" she asked, frowning a little when she realized that there was no label on them.

"They are special pills to make your body go through the same levels of adrenaline you went through during your injury. That is the green one." He gently poked the bottle with small pastel-green hockey-puck shaped pills. "The pink ones will keep your body from actually registering the effects." He pocked at the other bottle containing tiny pearl-like pearl that looked more like pink fish eggs.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna nodded in understanding. She didn't understand why but… the sight of these pills made her feel slightly uneasy, and not just the general shape of the things.

"How many times a day?" she asked slowly, wiping away the remaining tears from her cheeks.

"Once a day will be enough." Dr. Kudo answered with a smile before a knock on the door interrupted them.

A woman was standing in the doorway, holding up a plastic, soft-looking package.

"Oh yes." Dr. Kudo expressed, stepping forward to take the package from the woman. "Thank you." And just like that, the woman left, not really paying any attention to Tsuna.

Dr. Kudo turned back to the teenage girl, holding out the package towards her.

"We thought you might want to have these back."

Putting the bottles on the bed, Tsuna slowly slid off of the red, stepping up to take the package from the doctor's hands.

"I'll leave you to it then." Dr. Kudo said, bidding goodbye before she turned right around and left the room, leaving Tsuna standing there in the center of it with a package in her arms.

Tsuna shrugged before carefully opening the package, folding the plastic open to reveal, her uniform. The uniform she'd been wearing when she'd been shot, only they had been perfectly washed, mended and folded.

Of course, her mother hadn't allowed Tsuna to remain in the hospital robes for very long, seeing as they barely cover anything of her skin, and so, her mother had been a perfect saint and had come to the hospital with a couple of changes, so right this moment, Tsuna was in an orange T-shirt with jeans shorts and a white cardigan.

However, there was one thing missing to her outfit.

One thing that she positively couldn't live without.

Furiously, Tsuna dug through the package until her hands folded around the thin golden chain, a sigh of relief escaping her as she pulled up a pendant of sorts. The pendant itself was a smaller replica of the sigil on the cover of her sketch-book, a matching pair that she'd gotten from her father last Christmas.

She never went anywhere without this pendant if she had anything to say about it.

She let the rest of the package drop to the floor, allowing herself the moment to simply relish in the feel of the small sigil in the palm of her hand, the touch of it under her fingertips before she hung it around her neck, smiling as the cold metal landed between her collarbones.

Truthfully, she'd almost felt naked without it.

Then… she recalled the pills.

Slowly, she turned around, staring at the two bottles lying among the sheets.

Truly, they were mocking her with their existence, not to mention the almost haunting feeling she got just by looking at them. But, she wanted to be rid of her handicap, she wanted to get better, so she walked up, plucked up the two bottles from the bed, desperately pushing down the uneasy feelings as she dropped one pill from each bottle into her hand and proceeded to shove them into her mouth, washing them down with the cup of water that had just been waiting for her at the bedside table since a few hours back.

The feeling only got worse as the pills washed down her throat.

The clearing of someone else's throat knocked her out of her thoughts.

Spinning around, Tsuna couldn't help but smile at the sight of the star athlete standing in the doorway.

"Hey." He greeted, though he had this frown on his face.

"Hi." She greeted back, putting the bottles on the table.

Yamamoto's eyes followed the bottles, staring at them for a moment before he turned his attention back to Tsuna.

"What are the pills for?" he asked, stepping further into the room. "I thought you were just days from being released." His voice carried a hint of worry in it.

"I am," Tsuna answered casually, plopping down onto the bed, showing off just how much the wound wasn't bothering her anymore. She threw a look to the pills, nodding to them as an indicator. "Those are to fix a decade old problem."

Yamamoto frowned slightly, dropping his bag to the floor as he himself collapsed into the visitor's chair, looking at her intently.

"What kind of problem?"

Tsuna had to think for a moment.

Could she tell Yamamoto? Would it be smart to do so? He probably would feel terribly guilty once the news was brought to light, but he looked so expectant…

Finally, she sighed.

"There was this part of my brain that absolutely refused to develop when I was younger." She said, motioning with a finger around her head as she watched Yamamoto's eyes widening just a fraction. "It made it so that whenever I tried to set my mind on something I would either lose all form of balance or completely shatter my ability to think straight." She said, trying to make her voice sound as nonchalant as possible.

Yamamoto's hand flew up, stopping her from trying to brush off these news as though they were nothing.

"Wait…" he asked, voice surprisingly low as he looked at the ground.

She did wait, stating at the athlete expectantly, somehow knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"So if you were to take a test…" he started off slowly, his words rolling out of his mouth almost hesitantly, fearing what Tsuna's reaction would be, which was a quick one.

"Brain turns into scrambled eggs." She answered easily, turning around to fetch the folded sketch off the bedside table.

"And if you were to pay attention to how you were walking…" Yamamoto continued, even slower than before, voice sounding a pitch darker than she'd ever heard it.

"Automatic face-plant," Tsuna replied, acting as though it wasn't that big a deal.

Slowly, Yamamoto rose from his chair.

"So you mean to tell me that…" his voice was little more than a hateful growl as he stared down at Tsuna, eyes somehow portraying the interesting mix of shock and absolute anger at the same time. "The whole school has been bullying you…" his hands fell on either side of Tsuna's tiny body on the bed, her staring up at him as his voice rose. "Because of a handicap!" had Tsuna been any other person, she probably would have flinched.

But Tsuna wasn't any other person.

Not only was she accustomed to people screaming in her face, she was also more than used to angry people invading her personal bubble. She just tilted her head to the side, quickly thinking over the words the athlete had just spewed.

"Pretty much." She nodded.

For a long moment, Yamamoto just stares at her, confused at her indifferent expression.

Groaning, Yamamoto plopped down on top of the bed, staring at his wrists as he buried his forehead into the palms of his hands.

"You have been bullied for something you couldn't control…" he grumbled, forcing Tsuna to strain her ears in order to properly hear him. "And you just sit there as if it doesn't matter?" he glanced at her from the corner of her eye, watching as she fiddles with a piece of folded paper.

"I've gotten used to it." She shrugged, eyes pinned on the thing in her hands.

Yamamoto buried his face into his hands, letting out a series of incoherent grumbles muffled by the palms of his hands, the self-hatred practically radiating off of him.

Finally, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs before he allowed his forearms to fall over his knees.

"I'm so, so sorry Sawada." He mumbled, refusing to look at her.

It was Tsuna's turn to sigh, shaking her head as she scootched over to the athlete.

"Don't be," she said, putting a tiny hand on his shoulder. "You haven't done anything."

This didn't cheer Yamamoto up at all.

Shooting back up to his feet, the athlete threw his hands into the air, angrily spinning around towards the petite girl still settled on top of the bed.

"But I should have!"

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna got off of the bed, her bare feet moving over the tiled floor towards the athlete as she held out the folded sketch out toward him.

"For you." She stated, throwing the paper a brief glance before looking him right in the eye.

Obviously still angry with himself, Yamamoto almost snatched the paper from her, keeping his eyes firmly locked on hers as he folded it up, only tearing them away once he had it straightened out in front of him.

And what he saw froze him in place.

It was him.

Or, to be more accurate, it was a pencil portrait of him.

Expertly made, confident lines, shadows that fell in the most realistic manner he had ever seen in a drawing before, and seeing that their class did have a few students in the Artistic division he'd seen quite a few drawings over the few weeks they've been in high-school, and yet… this one pencil sketch had more life than any of them.

Speechless, Yamamoto looked back up at Tsuna.

"Wha-?" he couldn't find the words.

"It's your birthday isn't it?" Tsuna just asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Yamamoto could only nod, mouth partially open and eyes wide. "It's the best I could make when still locked up in here but…" her tiny hand moved up to brush some hair behind her ear in the familiar nervous habit Yamamoto had become quite used to seeing.

Yamamoto looked back at the drawing, and sure enough, at the bottom right-hand corner was something written in minute, flowing handwriting.

 _Happy Sweet 16._

For a moment, Yamamoto just stood there, staring at the writing. Then, a hand found it's way over his mouth, a breath sucked in through his nose as the gesture thoroughly registered.

Sawada Tsunako… the schools most bullied girl with a (to him) newly discovered function handicap that he had done little to nothing to try and help for as long as they had shared the same class, and yet here she was, giving him a hand-drawn portrait of himself for his birthday. A portrait that she'd obviously spent a lot of time on if the detail was anything to go by. Not that Yamamoto knew that much about art, to begin with.

Taking down the hand, Yamamoto turned to Tsuna again.

"Why?" he asked, voice shaking slightly.

Tsuna just shrugged.

"You're a good person." She stated with the most steady voice he's heard her speak with. "Why shouldn't I?"

What happened next, Tsuna still couldn't quite wrap her mind around.

She'd just been standing there one second, looking at Yamamoto as though that alone would help him understand just how genuine she was, and the next her face was pressed into said athlete's muscled chest, strong arms wrapped around her small frame as Yamamoto Takeshi hugged her close to him.

It shouldn't have hurt as much as it did, it was just a hug and they shouldn't hug, but Tsuna still found herself squirming a little in discomfort, her skin burning where the athlete's skin made contact with hers.

He must have noticed her discomfort, for he put his hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her away from him so that he could look at her face with determination in his eyes.

"I promise you Sawada…" he spoke, voice steady and deep. "When you come back to school, it will be much better."

Tsuna couldn't help the sigh that escaped her.

"Yamamoto-san…" she didn't get to finish the thought.

"TSUNA-CHAN-" Nana's scream was cut short the second she'd burst into her daughter's hospital room, only to freeze once she noticed that her daughter wasn't alone in there. And what a sight it must have been, her almost sixteen-year-old daughter standing in front of an admittedly handsome young man who happened to have his hands on her shoulders, both of whom were looking at the woman in wide-eyed shock.

Nana blinked a few times before a small smirk formed on her lips.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Tsuna narrowed her eyes at the tone her mother was using.

It was _way_ too suggestive for Tsuna's comfort.

Yamamoto removed his hands from Tsuna's shoulders.

"Not at all." He stated, turning his attention back to the younger Sawada female, optioning to put his hand on top of her head, ruffling her hair slightly. "I'll see you when you get back to school then?" he asked, meeting her eyes.

"Yeah." Tsuna nodded, knocking his hand away from her head.

Yamamoto bowed swiftly to Nana, and then he disappeared out the door.

The two women stared at the doorway for a moment, Tsuna mentally counting the seconds, before Nana almost frantically spun around towards her daughter.

"What was that?" the woman asked excitedly.

"What was what?" Tsuna asked, turning to sit back down on top of the bed.

"Tsuna-chan…" Nana almost giggled as she said her daughter's nickname. "That handsome young man just had his hands on your shoulders." She pointed a slender finger towards the door. "What was that about?"

Tsuna sighed heavily.

Figures her mother would get caught up on that…

She was well aware that her mother knew who Yamamoto was, apparently, he'd come over after school ended the day she'd gotten shot and he'd given her the contact to his family's sushi-shop to call when Tsuna woke up.

Still… she didn't like the look her mother was giving her.

"He was feeling guilty about my previous school life." She explained, picking up her sketch-book again, leaning back against the pillows as she set to run the tip of her pencil over the first blank page. "He was saying something about…" she waved her hand in the air, as though trying to decide on the right words. "Making sure I was having a better time in school when I returned or… something."

Nana only seemed to giggle even more energetically.

Tsuna sighed again.

Sometimes… dealing with her mother was a real chore.

Looking up from the sketch slowly forming on the page in front of her, Tsuna gave her mother a hard look.

"What did you want?"

It took a moment before Nana realized what daughter meant.

"Right." She said, walking up and sitting down in front of her daughter. "I've been thinking…"

Tsuna would have raised an eyebrow if she was actually capable of doing so, instead, she furrowed them in suspicion.

"Yes?"

"We've got plenty of room in our house…" Nana continued, looking straight into the air. "Why don't we put up a room for rent?" she asked. "Extra money, and more people at our _overly_ large kitchen table."

Tsuna thought about it for a moment, biting her lip as she did.

Finally, she let out a light groan.

"Alright, why not?"

* * *

Tsuna had been brought into a different room, one that she'd never been in before, but that didn't say much as she hasn't exactly spent that much time in the hospital at all throughout her life.

The doctor had told her to lay down on the dentist-like chair and wait for a moment.

The female had then pulled out a skin sample that had been taken during Tsuna's emergency operation and placed it inside a strange looking machine. It hummed for a moment before a green light went off at the top of what looked like a microwave-door.

The woman took out a small roll of bio-material, a special brand that was specially made for the individual and not like the bio-fabric that would be bought at any other convenience store. The woman smiled at Tsuna before she cut off a small square of the material, gently applying it over the stitched-up hole in Tsuna's stomach.

Immediately, the material blended in with the rest of her skin, leaving little more than the illusion of flawless skin in its place.

Hesitantly, Tsuna prodded at the spot, not even able to feel the stitching under the soft, skin substitute.

"It will peel off on its own." The woman explained, putting the rest of the roll into Tsuna's hand. "Apply a new one when this happens to keep the wound from straining."

The touch of the roll on its own was a terribly strange sensation, but Tsuna still held it in her hand as she stepped out of the room, running her thumb over the material and was genuinely surprised when her thumb didn't completely melt into it like it had done against her stomach.

At least the roll in her hand started the counter to when she can finally go home.

* * *

 ** _April 26_**

 ** _Sunday 2215_**

A tall, lean man dressed in an expensive black suit strode down the roads of Italy, his fedora shadowing his eyes but a content smirk was playing on his lips as he fingered his mirror-screen, seemingly absorbed by the article he was reading.

He was a very handsome man, capturing the attention of almost the entire female population that he passed, even those that were obviously on dates with their significant others, and thus, he also pissed off a lot of people. He was well aware of this fact, he was used to it, and if anything, it only made him smirk even more.

He moved his screen into his pocket, keeping both his hands hidden as he strode confidently into the pub he'd been aiming for during his walk, not even bothering to spare a glance at the figure following him.

Throwing up the doors to the pub, all activity inside stopped as they all turned to stare at the new arrival.

Two suited men smirked at the sight of him.

"Oh, so you're here?" one of the men greeted, raising his shot glass towards the man. "Got yourself a new assignment have you?"

"Ay." The man confirmed with a sharp nod, his deep voice booming over the silence as he confidently took a few more steps into the building.

"Where is it now?" the other man asked, glancing at the man from the corner of his eye. "Rome? Venice?"

"Japan." The man answered casually, never even taking his hands out of his pockets.

"Japan!" the two men immediately reacted, looks of shock plastered over their faces as they turned fully towards the man.

"That old man finally managed to make the lion give in?"

The man allowed himself a light chuckle at the sight of their reactions.

The man behind the counter set down a shot of amber liquid in front of the man.

"Looks like I'm in for a long trip." He mused, long fingers picking up the shot and downing it with little effort.

At that moment, the shadow that had followed the man decided to finally step out, a knife raised high above his head as he let out a loud cry, bringing down the knife, going in for the kill.

It didn't quite happen the way he'd imagined it.

The knife had barely come within an inch of the man's neck before it was knocked out of his hand, the bones in his wrist snapping, and the very next second, the wannabe-assassin was lying on the floor, twitching in pain as he clutched at his broken wrist, screaming in pain as he stared up at the man, eyes full of fear.

All the man did was smirk, downing another shot.

Oh, he was going to have fun when in Japan, that much was clear.

* * *

 ** _April 27_**

 ** _Monday 2215_**

It was the day she'd been waiting for.

Tsuna was standing in the reception of the hospital, a light bag hanging from her shoulder as she waited for Dr. Kudo. The doctor had gone to schedule Tsuna for a time at a local therapist, something Tsuna had completely forgotten that she'd probably need as she _has_ been shot in the stomach.

Shifting from one foot to the other, Tsuna raised herself on the tip of her toe, relishing in the unnatural amount of balance she now possessed. Of course, she'd been banned from participating in any form of physical classes, in including her ballet lessons, but that didn't mean she couldn't practice the basics in her bedroom to keep her flexibility and the strength in her leg and back muscles. She didn't want to return to ballet classes after summer vacation and find that she's even more useless in the art that she's ever been before.

Finally, Dr. Kudo arrived, transferring the details to Tsuna's alexandrite type gem-phone. The details automatically settled into Tsuna's personal schedule, setting an alarm for the event to make sure that Tsuna wouldn't eventually forget to go altogether.

With that finally handled, Tsuna was a free woman.

* * *

The day before, Nana had informed that Tsuna's long-since ordered storage space had arrived, and now, they were standing in her bedroom, waiting to be put together and be filled with what more than likely still lay scattered all over her floor back home.

Standing in front of her bedroom door, Tsuna felt somewhat uncomfortable, wondering whether or not she would actually open the door and face the mess she knew would great her on the other side. It just would feel right after having been locked up in the all-too-clean hospital for as long as she had. The mess that she'd gotten so used to before would now most likely feel so much worse than it ever has.

She stared at the nameplate she'd made a few years ago, frowning slightly at the glittering lines her eleven-year-old self had probably thought of as pretty. It looked as though that too was due for a change.

Finally, she shook her head, banishing her foreboding notions and decided to just get it over with.

With that thought, she put her hand on the handle of the door and practically shoved the large slab of wood open.

Each step up the stairs had been heavier than the one before, until finally, she stood at the top of the stars, facing the mess that she'd lived in for the past three years.

Just like she had expected, the mess felt immense.

The piles of used papers, dirty clothes, and other knick-knacks felt so much larger than how they had felt the last time she had seen them.

However…

Slowly, she turned her attention to the series of different-sized boxes that stood in the middle of the room, the mess that had previously been there having been viciously shoved away so that the boxes wouldn't crush them.

That mess would soon be dealt with.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna dropped her bag to the floor, rolling up the sleeves of her white cardigan as she marched to the boxes, only sparing a thought to fetch a pair of scissors from on top of her desk (the drawers were full of underwear, socks, and other things that would later find a new home) before she ripped open the cardboard to reach the pale brown wood that made up the shelves and other things she was going to put together.

She didn't even notice the fierce tingling sensation at the tip of her fingers.

Now, Tsunako was by no means an unintelligent young woman. Her test results were nothing to go by, her sense of logic and general level of understanding was quite high. In fact, one of the three motto's she went by was "I don't know a lot of things, but I understand plenty". She understood and followed all the lectures at school perfectly fine, and so, she was able to understand and follow the instructions kept within the boxes equally perfectly fine.

Truth be told, it wasn't the first time she'd have to put furniture together on her own, what with her father not being around and all.

Within a couple of hours, Tsuna had put together the shelves, the standing ones as well as the ones she was to screw onto the walls. Seeing as she had two shelves of the same height, she used them to help her raise the larger wall-mounted shelves before tightly screwing them in place. With the shelves in place, she moved around everything else to where she wanted them, screwing them in place as well. The last thing she needed to mount was the smaller shelves and organization above her desk, leaning back when she was done.

It was strange, seeing so many empty shelves and drawers all around the room.

If someone had stepped in right this moment, they would really have believed that Tsuna was a slob, too lazy to put anything where there was room.

She was proud of her work, but then she looked down at her feet, reminding herself that her work had only just behind.

The tingling sensation had now spread to the whole of Tsuna's palms, but she was too busy to register that.

* * *

At 06:48 pm, Nana knocked on her daughter's bedroom with a tray of Juice and an assembly of snacks resting on her left forearm. She didn't wait for an invitation and just walked in.

What met her eyes, was something she had never expected to see in her daughter's bedroom ever since Tsuna first started buying home seemingly useless things at the start of middle-school.

At the moment, Tsuna was standing in front of a tall cupboard, carefully sliding her finished paintings into place. The piece of furniture was big enough that only half of the thing was filled up, leaving more than enough room for her future works. Nana suspected that Tsuna was only sorting the paintings after the order of which they had been painted right now, but if she knew her daughter, she would probably think of a way to sort them after motive on a later date.

The difference in the room was already quite startling.

All the discarded papers had either been thrown away for being useless or put into binders and folders that were now stacked in bookcases leaning against the wall, Notebooks, diaries, and the mountain of sketch-books were not too far away from them. Maybe they too would be carefully sorted on a later date.

Nana could spot the antique porcelain dolls Tsuna had received for several years sitting on top of a wide wall-mounted shelf, twenty-seven dolls in total, all of varying sizes and makes, although they were all equally beautiful in beautiful dresses and glossy hair more often than not worn in ringlets.

Perhaps that had been why Iemitsu had bought them in the first place.

After all, Tsuna's hair would have been worn in natural ringlets should she actually decide to manage it.

Her daughter had taken great care of the dolls through the years, even though the majority of them had been lost to the mess that had covered the floor.

Looking at the dolls, Nana couldn't help but sweep her eyes over the rest of the bedroom, her gaze locking on the white plush bunny with the orange ribbon tied around its neck that Tsuna had had since Nana had first made it for her sixth birthday. It amazed Nana how it had still maintained it's pure white color.

Next to the bunny (whom Nana distinctly remember having been named Shiro), on the bedside table, stood the antique music-box that was basically just a porcelain, spinning, figurine of a ballet dancer (not an actual box), that was winded up with the strange, golden, crest-like key that Tsuna even now had hanging around her neck.

Her eyes continued, this time landing on the antique tea-set that was an actual real china set from France that Iemitsu had bought for Tsuna when she had been around the age where girl's liked to have tea-parties. It was a miracle that the girl was actually really careful with her father's gifts and so, the most likely very expensive set didn't seem to have a crack on it even as it lay among the sheets on Tsuna's bed.

Nana's eyes moved over Tsuna's desk where they froze again on the small, beautiful, just as antique as the china, decorated silver trinket box that actually had the name Cecilia engraved into the lid from its first owner, Tsuna used the engraving for inspiration whenever she did calligraphy so she didn't mind the name. Nana knew that Tsuna kept something she considered special in that box, it was just that every time Nana had tried to get Tsuna to show her what it was, Tsuna would blatantly refuse her.

It may be because Tsuna herself doesn't even know what the box contains, and is afraid of what memories might resurface should she decide to open it. She'd forgotten it a few years ago.

Continuing with her sweep, her eyes fell on the large mahogany jewelry box that had been temporarily stationed on top of the desk. It's multiple compartments folded out, ready to be filled with the many pieces of jewelry that were most likely scattered all over the room.

That Iemitsu and showering Tsuna with gifts.

If he's feeling so guilty for not being around then he should just visit, really.

He used to mostly send her toys. Beautiful, antique toys, mostly in the Victorian style or 21st century, until she entered her teen years, at which point he began to send her all types of clothing, jewelry, allergy safe makeup, shoes, accessories. Everything a teenage girl could ever wish for.

The only reason he knew to send her allergy safe make-up being that he too shared that same allergy.

One would think that all of these gifts would make her little girl spoiled, but not Tsuna. It may have been due to how everyone outside of her home was treating her, but Tsuna barely thought about herself at all.

Most of the toys that Iemitsu had sent were now packed away in the attic. Like that large, beautiful, antique Victorian doll-house with the realistic furniture and dolls, and the surprisingly large assortment of clothes for said dolls. Or that beautiful rocking-horse that had been shaped like a beautiful white mere with actual horse hair for a tail and mane.

It was a shame that they had to be packed away, but Tsuna felt that they would take too much place in her room (even though Nana could see that Tsuna hasn't wanted to pack away all of her toys either) and so, they were gathering dust in the basement at the moment.

Perhaps when Tsuna get's married and has her own little girls, those things would be played with once more.

The thought of Tsuna starting her own family with a kind, intelligent young man made Nana feel equally happy as she dreaded the wedding she was sure would happen one day.

She trusted her daughter, she was too good a judge of character to get into a relationship with someone that would become a stalker should she break up with them, or even stay in a relationship she can tell is starting to fall apart.

And so, an intelligent young man that treated her daughter as though she were their world was the best option that Nana could think of.

Nana couldn't help but smile at her daughters bedroom, even though accessories, make-up, shoes, and clothing were still scattered all over the floor (she really should get her her own laundry-basket), the room looked a hundred percent better than it had done when Nana had led the delivery men into the room.

The room itself screamed teenager by the flat TV hung on top of the wall and the laptop sitting next to the jewelry box, not to mention the full-body mirror practically covered by discarded garments. But the things she kept for decoration showed that she had a certain level of innocence left from her childhood years.

Not only on the toys.

Even though her daughter's favorite color was and probably would forever remain as orange, she had told Nana that too much orange over an extended period of time would only serve to make her eventually hate the color, and thus, Tsuna had optioned to decorate her room in the softer colors, pastels, the colors that the publically owned buildings were painted in to keep your eyes from being blinded.

She was an artistic child after all.

Buying her own rugs and curtains, sheets and covers. Nana knew there was even an assortment of wall paints in the room somewhere that was to be opened once Tsuna had everything in order.

Tsuna had even deliberately ordered shelves that weren't lacquered so that she may paint them as well as the room once she was done.

"I like what you've done with the place," Nana remarked as she stepped over the hair-brush her daughter had probably long-since forgotten ever existed, making her way towards the bed.

Tsuna closed the doors of the cupboard, turning towards her mother as she made to sit down on the cushion covered chest standing at the foot of the bed. The one filled with curtains, sheets, covers, and embroidered handkerchiefs so it was absolutely useless for any other storage).

"Actual storage space does make it easier." The teenager breathed, frowning as she finally registered the tingling in her hands, trying to diminish the sensation by brushing them against her jeans. It was like the tingling you get when a limb is waking up only… hotter (temperature wise).

"You going to gather up the jewelry now?" Nana asked, nodding towards the gaping jewelry-box.

Tsuna had received that thing for her fifteenth birthday, only by that time her jewelry was already terribly scattered all over her room and she had just, never bothered to look for them through the mess.

Now, however, searching for the glimmering pieces of metal and gemstones (both fake and real) would be so much easier. In fact, she could already spot about twenty of them with a quick look around the floor.

"That's the plan," Tsuna replied with what could only be described as a sigh of surrender.

From one task that required a lot of lifting and stretching, she would directly move on to a task that required a lot of bending down.

Who knew cleaning could be such a workout?

Well, at least it would help her keep her leg muscles in shape.

Nana, who had apparently noticed her daughter's exhausted expression, twisted herself around where she was sitting and reached over to the tray to pick up the glass of clear pear juice. Standing up, she held the glass up to the tired looking teenager.

"How about a little break first?" she asked gently with a warm smile. "Wouldn't want you to end up back at the hospital when I've just got you back home now would we?"

Tsuna smiled gratefully at her mother, taking the glass from her hand.

The cold liquid had chilled the glass, cooling down her still tingling fingers, and Tsuna couldn't help the relieved sigh escaping her lips at the feel of the cold.

Wait a second… was that… sizzling?

Eyes shooting down to her hand, Tsuna thought, for a split second, that she saw a light, almost invisible mist steaming up from where her fingers touched the glass, but the second she blinked, it was gone.

Along with the tingling.

"Is something wrong?" Nana asked, succeeding in snapping her daughter out of her thoughts.

Looking up at her mother, Tsuna hesitated for a second before slowly shaking her head.

"No," she answered, looking back at the glass. "Nothing at all."

Brushing off what she'd seen as her overworked mind playing tricks on her, Tsuna brought the glass up to her lips, downing as much as she could in one go.

Thankfully, her mother had brought a whole pitcher of the thing so Tsuna didn't have to save anything.

The liquid was a little more… room temperature than the coolness of the glass had led her to believe, but it still worked wonders in unwinding her over-worked body.

The sweet taste of the juice brought a smile to Tsuna's mouth. That particular type of juice has always had that power, ever since she was a baby and it had been the first thing she had tasted that wasn't breast-milk or formula (at least, according to Nana). The liquid didn't have any added sugar or sweetenings so it was alright for a seven-month-old baby to drink, and little baby Tsuna had loved it.

Seeing Tsuna's reaction, Nana reached out her hand to stroke her daughter over her terribly messy hair.

Nana frowned for a moment. She remembered when she had been the one to take care of the girl's hair, stars how beautiful it had been then, shining in the sunlight as if it had been spun out of gold, curling into those adorable ringlets that Nana had loved to put up into silk ribbons.

Then, the hair had gotten longer, thicker, and maintaining them became more like plowing through a field before sowing than the calming process Nana remembered, and before either of the women knew it, it had become a birds nest.

"You should really do something about this." Nana murmured, letting her fingers pinch the tips of Tsuna's hair, stroking them between her fingers.

It still shocked Nana just how close to the same height the two of them were.

This earned Nana an eye-roll from her daughter.

Brushing off her mother's hand, Tsuna downed the remaining liquid in the glass.

"Not now." She groaned. "Too much to do."

Nana sighed heavily, putting her hands on her hips.

"Alright." She gave. "But after you're done, I want you to take a long shower young lady." She almost raised her finger in mock scolding.

"Alright." Was the only reply she got.

Tsuna put the glass down, stretching a little, listening with satisfaction as a few of her joints clicked before she proceeded to push her mother out of the room.

"Now goodbye."

The woman stopped herself in the doorway by grabbing hold of the framed, turning her head around to look at her daughter from the corner of her eye.

"Don't forget to brush your hair."

"I know." Tsuna groaned, pushing at her mothers back with a bit more force. "I'm not a child anymore, remember?"

"I know you're not honey, but-" she didn't get to finish her sentence as she last shove from Tsuna caused her to lose her grip on the door-frames and she almost tumbled into the hallway, turning around just in time to see her daughter shut the door behind her.

"You're still my daughter." Nana finished in the silence of the hallway.

Really, their house was way too big for just the two of them.

She couldn't wait for the new guest to arrive.

Wait… had she forgotten to tell Tsuna about him?

* * *

On the other side of the door, Tsuna forced herself back up the steps, stopping at the top to look over what remained of the mess.

"Alright floor." She muttered, brushing her filthy bangs from her face, a fire burning behind her light brown eyes. The tingling feeling in her hands returning. "It's about time you showed yourself."

* * *

 **A/N: Funny story, I actually finished this chapter last night, but Daddy dearest turns off WiFi at 10:00 pm so I wasn't able to post it.**

 **Anyway, I wanted to know if you people were interested in what names I was beating myself over the head to not use, if you are, just ask for it and the answer will come with the next chapter.**

 **Please tell me what you think, and I'll be back as fast as I can.**

 **Love you loads!**

 **This has been...**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	4. Scene 4: Reboyama Kidou

**AN: Alright, I actually deviated a lot from the original version of the story in this, and not just because of the new ideas I have added to it, but also because I've actually got set dates in this version so I can't just jam three weeks worth of things happening into like… two paragraphs like I did in the first one.**

 **But hey, it's okay, It left a lot more room for me to add things! And boy did I add things…**

 **I am just going to keep writing on this, because there is one scene further into the story that I have added and REALLY look foreward to writing.**

 **He he he he.**

 **Anyway, I love you all.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Scene 4:**

 **Reboyama Kidou**

 ** _May 1_**

 ** _Friday 2215_**

Whilst Tsuna had been released to return home, she was basically grounded for another week before she could return to the army of hormonal carnivored that was the school building.

And so, there she was, sitting on her bed and absentmindedly running her pen over a blank paper in her sketch-book.

Her room looked very differently than it had been for several years. For one, you could actually see the soft grass-green carpet that had been hidden under the mess, and for another, she'd painted the walls in sky blue and green, creating plain green hills. It wasn't just the walls she'd painted though, she'd also painted the shelves, cupboards and cases, blending them into the walls the best she could. The only thing she didn't paint was the organization above the desk, the desk itself, and of course, the bed.

This paint-job was just the start though, she had several details planned for a later date, but it would have to wait until she had a clear picture in her head and had them outlined on the wall before she attempted anything with a brush.

She didn't want to ruin all her hard work.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she caught sight of her doodles from the corner of her eye.

The whole page was littered with strange… symbols.

Hard lines, soft lines, curved and swirly lines, making up strange… rune-like figures. Or maybe they were more like hieroplyphs that were trying to be secretive about what they really looked like.

Tsuna had been frowning, turning the sketch-book from angle to angle in front of her eyes, when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Tsuna called, still looking at the doodles as her mother walked up the steps.

Nana didn't have to say anything, Tsuna had a rather good idea about what she wanted to tell her.

"Sakura call again?"

Really, that woman was a walking land-mine, one move in the wrong direction and she just explodes in a fit of panicked cries and calls Nana even though there are other compitent employees at the Crescent bakery.

Her mother nodded with a sigh, her hair already pulled up into a bun.

"I'll probably be gone for a few hours." She said slowly, "Which means that I probably won't be back in time before the guest arrives."

Tsuna almost dropped her sketch book, whipping her head around to look at her mother, her eyes wide open in shock.

"What guest?" she asked, voice almost frantic.

Nana's face broke into a look of realization, her hand flying up to slap herself on the forehead.

"I knew I had forgotten to tell you something!" she exclaimed, taking a deep breath as she let her hands fall on her hips, eyes locked onto the newly cleaned floor.

After a moment, she looked up at her daughter.

"A young man called to rent the room just a day after I put out the notice." She explained. "He'll be arriving in one, maybe two hours, so… you think you could let him in in my place?"

For a moment, Tsuna just sat there, shocked that her mother's notice had gotten a reply that quickly.

Sighing heavily, Tsuna picked her sketchbook back up from the matress.

"Fine." She breathed.

"Thank you." Nana said before she slipped out of the room, leaving her daughter to her doodles.

* * *

Tsuna could have sworn that she'd just been doodling for about half an hour when the sound of the doorbell echoed through the house. Though, when she checked the time, she saw that it really had been almost three hours.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna pulled herself away from the bed and marched down the two sets of stairs down to the hallway, immediately freezing at the tall, shadowed figure on the other side of the tinted window fitted into the front door. The most she could tell about the figure was that it was wearing some sort of hat.

Squaring her shoulder, Tsuna continued the remaining steps to the door, and opened it slowly.

The man on the other side of the door was, without a doubt, a foreigner. Tall, lean, but with notable muscle-mass under what Tsuna suspected was a rather expencive black suit. His face was sharp, with pointed features and naturally narrowed impossibly dark, lifeless eyes. The only thing that didn't look prim and proper about this man was his ruffled hair, visible under the shining black fedora on top of his head. Tsuna mentally cursed.

He's hot.

A dark chuckle escaped the stranger, and it was at that moment that Tsuna realized.

He had been studying her too.

"Sawada Nana?" the man questioned, her bass voice booming through the foyer.

Snorting without humor, Tsuna met the man's eyes.

"What do you think?"

The man chuckled at her reaction.

"Sawada Tsunako then?" he asked, putting his hands into his pockets. "Are you usually like this when meeting strangers?"

Tsuna shifted her weight from one foot to another.

"No." she answered swifly. "But you don't really know me, so it's fine." She sighed, glancing down at the flood before meeting the man's eyes again. "You the new guest?"

If the smirk could have gotten wider, it just did.

The man lifted his hat from his head, putting it against his chest and bowed deep for the tiny girl in front of him.

"Reboyama Kidou, at your service." Straightening himself out, he dropped the hat back on top of his surprisingly messy hair. "I'm going to be the teacher of a new optional course at your school starting next week."

"Right…" Tsuna sighed, not really caring.

She liked her school schedule as it was, she didn't want to add another course to it.

Shaking her head, she jerked her head into the house.

"I'll show you to your room."

Even though Tsuna hadn't been aware that the man was even arriving, Nana and Tsuna had decided on which room to give to the restal guest, and their choice had been the first door on the left at the top of the second floor. It was a medium-sized room with a small balcony, painted in neutral colors of beige and green, it had a bed, a desk, a closet, and an expty bookcase, not to mention Tsuna's absolute favorite part about the room.

It was the one furthest away from her room.

Tsuna returned to her doodling as she led the way up the staircase, running her pencil over the symbols that just continued to fill up the paper.

She'd just reached the top of the stairs when she suddenly realized, her sketchbook wasn't in her hands anymore.

With the grace of a balett dancer, Tsuna spun around to the teacher, finding him standing a few steps below her, eyes moving over the open page of her sketchbook, a look of mixed shock and confusion etched into his eyebrows.

For a long moment, Tsuna stared at the man in front of her.

He had snatched that book from her hands so fast that her brain hadn't had the time to register it going missing…

Just who was this man?

The man finally raised his gaze to look at her.

"Have you seen these symbols before?" he asked, sounding almost accusing.

Tsuna frowned at the tone of his voice.

"No, they're just doodles." She answered, taking her sketchbook back from his hands. She looked over the symbols again before glancing at the man. "What?" she asked. "Have _you_ seen them before?"

Reboyama-sensei looked at her for a long moment, obviously going through his answer in his head.

He didn't get the chance to answer her as the front door opened.

"Tsuna-chan! I'm home." Nana called out as she stepped into the house.

Seeing the teacher turn around to greet her mother, Tsuna decided to take the opportunity to slip away, the mere presence of the man sending an uncomfortable sensation through her entire body.

"Miss Sawada." Reboyama called out as Tsuna's hand landed on her door handle, forcing her to pause as she turned her head just the tiniest bit in his direction, showing that she was listening. "I would hope that you think about joining my class in the future."

For a moment, Tsuna just stood there.

Then, she opened her door and disappeared up to her bedroom.

* * *

 ** _May 4_**

 ** _Monday 2215_**

Tsuna stood in front of her mirror, the front of her blouse pulled up as she gently cleaned the skin around the stitches on her stomach, trying to ignore the feel of the blemish every time her fingers brushed over it. Groaning slightly, she reached for the bio-material roll, cutting off a square and carefully applied it over the wound.

As always, she watched with interest as the material blended in with her skin, leaving behind the unblemished skin she would rather have in place of the stitched up wound.

"What happened?"

The voice had come so suddenly that it took all of Tsuna's training among her fellow students to not let out a scream as she spun around, almost jamming her blouse down.

"Do you knock?!" she almost screamed, staring at the foreigner.

The teacher has lived in their house for two whole days now, and so far all he had done is make Tsuna all the more suspicious with his presense. She'd lost count of how many times she'd heard the man either hint or outright suggest that she should sign up for his future course.

The more he insisted she should, the less interested she was.

Reboyama only gave her an incredulous look, motioning with a hand towards her stomach.

"What happened?" he asked again.

Tsuna let out a sigh, readjusting her blouse as she turned back towards the mirror.

"A missadventure with a prop-gun loaded with blanks." Tsuna answered with a sigh, walking over to her desk where her bag was waiting for her, trying to ignore the teachers gaze drilling into her back.

She didn't need to see the man to know the question brewing in his mind.

The man was shrouded in a veil of mystery, and Yet… certain things about him was rather easy to read.

Threading her arm through the straps of her bag, Tsuna turned around towards the teacher.

"Why are you here?" she asked, giving the teacher a rather bored look. "If you're a teacher, aren't you supposed to be at school before I am?" she waved her hands in the air to the man.

Reboyama looked at her for a moment before a small smirk spread across his mouth.

"Tomorrow, I will be," his hand submerged into his pocket as he walked up to her. "But I got you something that I wanted to give you before you left."

Tsuna's eyes narrowed, watching the man walk up to her.

"What is it?"

Slowly, the man pulled out a small, carved crystal bottle with what looked like a white gold screw-on top. It was about the size of the center of his palm, in which the bottle lay as he held it out towards her, looking right at her as she took in his glittering little offering. It was filled with something, something thick, glossy and black and Tsuna didn't need to think too long before she knew what it was.

Ink.

Why was this man giving her ink?

Slowly, Tsuna raised her eyes to look at the man.

"What..?" she muttered, suddenly finding it difficult to structure her words.

"It's special ink imported from Italy." The man told her, turning the bottle over in his hand, the light caught onto the crystal, making it shine in all the colors of the rainbow. "It's made of a special mineral that I think will give a different effect to your works."

For a long moment, Tsuna just stared at the bottle.

"Why are you giving me this?" she was rather scared to actually take the bottle.

Reboyama only sighed, taking another step towards her.

"I don't want us to be on odd ends with one another." He said, taking her wrist into his free hand and raising it, palm-up in between them. "Think of this as a peace offering." He put the bottle into her much smaller hand, allowing her to feel just how large it actually was before he folded her fingers around it. Much of the bottle could still be seen when held in her own, whilst it had been completely swallowed by Reboyama's hand.

With a nod, the teacher descended the stairs, exiting her bedroom with no more words.

For a moment, Tsuna just stared after him, bottle still clutched in her hand before she realized that she actually had somewhere to be. And so, she turned back towards her desk, slipping the bottle into one of the drawers of spare fabrics (in case she feels she wants to alter some of her father's gifted clothes), allowing it to rest atop a pillow of soft materials where she was sure nothing too serious would happen to it before she closed the drawer.

* * *

It had been hard work, dragging herself out the door and forcing each and every step as she almost stumbled to school. She suspected that she must have looked odd to the other people on the sidewalks, and even those sitting comfortably in the magna-vehicles that zoomed past her as she walked.

She knew that Yamamoto had promised her that her school experience would be better when she returned, and she knew that he would try to keep his word on that, but there was only so much one could do when you can only really keep track on the one class.

Hopefully, the head prefect had pulled some strings to lessen bullying whilst she was gone.

The first real change that hit Tsuna, was the electronic notice-board just after she'd stepped onto the school grounds, where a particularly large notice flashed in bright, vibrant colors.

 _NEW OPTIONAL COURSE ADDED TO SCHOOL_

 _A.A._

 _The meaning behind the name of the course shall only be revealed to the students accepted to the course according to new teacher, Reboyama Kidou._

 _Those interested in trying out for the new class, please report to classroom 3-G in the west wing after your regular classes has ended._

Tsuna couldn't help the frown that slowly etched itself onto her eyebrows.

A.A… what kind of a pretentious name for a class was that?

And _this_ was the class that Reboyama-sensei was so insistant on her trying out for?

She could see several students gathered at the bottom of the notice-board, so obviously the course had some level of interest from the student body, but as far as Tsuna was concerned, unless the teacher himself dragged her to the clasroom, she wouldn't put her foot in classroom 3-G.

It wasn't until she'd entered the school that she discovered that she'd been right about the head prefect pulling strings to stop bullying.

The hallways were almost lined with patrolling prefects, in their black coats sporting red and gold arm patches. There was at least one around every turn, at least, if felt like that as Tsuna moved through the building.

Even with the "guards" lining the corridors, Tsuna could still hear the whispers following her through the school.

"Hey, is that Dame-Tsuna?"

"Didn't she get shot?"

"I thought they said she died."

She'd just rounded one of said corners when she crashed into a surprisingly muscled chest.

She probably would have fallen over, had not the person she'd crashed into gently grabbed her by the shoulders, keeping her upright as she regained her bearings.

"Careful."

The voice was deep, and familiar.

Had she been anyone else, she'd probably frozen to the spot with overwhelming fear, but in stead, the voice filled up her body with a sense of comforting warmth that Tsuna seriously couldn't understand why she felt that way. Especially, when she reaised her head and saw Hibari Kyoya's second in commant and childhood friend.

Kusakabe Tetsuya.

She knew, she knew that she should be terrified of him, she knew that she should be terrified of both high ranking prefects, and yet, all she felt towards them was comfort.

It didn't really help when he looked at her with the softest gaze immaginable.

He recognized her, that much was apparent.

"You alright to be back at school Sawada?" the deputy head prefect asked her, slowly taking his hands away from her shoulders. "From what the chairman told me, you were hurt pretty bad."

There it was, that glint of concern in his eyes that made it absolutely impossible for Tsuna to feel any form of fear towards him, despite him almost literally tower over her.

She couldn't help the small smile that spread over her lips.

"Yeah." She nodded, keeping her voice low. "Yeah, I'm fine." She ran her fingers over the spot she knew the stitches were, even though she couldn't feel them. "They got me some bio-material, it's no big deal."

Kusakabe followed where she ran her hand, a small frown forming before he seemed to realize what he was doing.

Clearing his throat, he straightened out his back.

Kusakabe Tetsuya was from a family of caretakers, caretakers in change of the Hibari family. Growing up with the head prefect, Kusakabe had been raised alongside him, learning all of the well-bread traits that Tsuna had learned to distinguish as she observed the people around her. He was a proper young man, polite when the situation called for it and because of what his family did, he knew better than to act supperior to the people around him, which was probably one of the reasons why Hibari had seen it as a good idea to appoint him as his deputy.

He was seen as a frightening man because of the power he held over the student body and his closeness to the even more frightening and physically strong Hibari Kyoya, but Kusakabe would never raise a hand against anyone unless he felt the absolute need to do so.

Of everyone in the school, Kusakabe was the only one capable of keeping Hibari from beating someone up.

He was a good man, and Tsuna thought it was a shame that there were so few people that knew that.

"It's good to see you back." Kusakabe stated, looking down at her.

Tsuna let out a brief sigh.

"I would like to say that it was good to be back, but…" she trailed off. Thankfully, it didn't look as though Kusakabe was holding anything against her at that statement.

He loved the school, and he could obviously see why Tsuna didn't.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna motioned with her hand around them.

"I see that the chairman's doing something about it though." She nodded towards the prefect that just entered their line of vision.

"Yeah." Kusakabe agreed. "In the chairman's own words, the school should be safe for any and all students within the building." A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. "He spent the whole three days you were out organizing these patrol plans for the committee."

Tsuna found herself frowning again.

"How did he know I was out for three days?"

Kusakabe stiffened for a second, then, he allowed himself to relax a little.

"The chairman checked up on you of course." He stated with apparent ease, though there was a small tense note to his voice as he spoke. "You know how he is with people dying because of somethng that happened on school property."

Tsuna felt herself nod, which was strange as most of the time someone came close to dying because of something that happened on school grounds, was caused by said chairman.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"I should head to class."

"You should." Kusakabe agreed, his eyes softening for a second before he put his hand on her shoulder. "Take it easy, okay?"

Again, Tsuna nodded, and kept walking.

* * *

She'd closed her ears off to the whispers, knowing that they were only gong to become louder after her conversaton witb the deputy chairman of the prefects, but rght now, she needed to get to class.

She opened the door to the room as quetly as she could, hoping that she wouldn't attract too much attention by entering.

When was the last time her hopes came true?

The second she put one foot into the classroom, all eyes were on her.

She could feel herself freezing up, her fingers clutching at the straps of her bag so tightly her nails were digging into the palms of her hands, turning her knuckles white.

They were studying her. Their eyes moving all over her body, looking for something that Tsuna didn't really feel like she wanted to know what it was.

Unconsciously, she took a step back.

She hadn't expected that she would back right into something hard, yet soft, warm, and very living, at the same time. Something that put something feeling very similar to hands on her shoulders to keep her from moving any further than she'd already done.

Turning her head around, she found herself staring up at the face of Yamamoto Takeshi, his hazel eyes warmly twinkling down at her.

He smiled widely down at her.

"Good to see you back Sawada."

The effect those words had on her… the feeling of someone of her own class actually being glad that she was there was kind of overwhelming. Her heart ached a little and she was forced to look away from the athlete, face heeting up as she desperately tried to calm herself down.

This whole morning was to her nerves like an ancient laptop trying to process too much data.

Taking the situation into his own hands, Yamamoto began to push Tsuna into the classroom, gently guiding her through the rows of desks before he stopped in front of hers. There, he spun her around, knowing that she would handle it now and pushed her down onto the chair.

"There." He said, shining up like a two year old that had just managed to put a block down the right hole. "Now the balance has been restored."

Then, with a pat on her shoulder, he turned towards his own desk, sat down, and the previous moment was forgotten.

Feeling a bit miffed, Tsuna shoot her head before she let her bag slide down her arm, allowing it to rest on her lap as she dug through the content for her memory stick, plugging it into the screen surface of her desk before she pulled out her pencil-case and notebook as well.

There was still at least fifteen minutes until class started, she wanted to do some doodling whilst she still could, ignoring the looks of the students surrounding her.

* * *

 ** _May 6_**

 ** _Wednesday 2215_**

Physical class.

Each student were actually required to sign up for some sort of physical activity whilst in school, it didn't matter if you were in the Academic or Artistic division, you were still expected to sign up for some sort of sport, weapons training or even dance. Like Tsuna had balett.

But, even with this, the students still had physical class once a week.

Tsuna was sitting in the bleachers of the gym, watching as her classmates picked teams for the round of dodgeball that was about to fill the room. If she'd been allowed to actually participate, she knew she would have been picked last, but as she was banned from physical activity until after summer vacation, she was on the sidelines, her head resting in her hands as she watched her classmates fighting over who was going to get Yamamoto on their team.

Seriously, sometimes Tsuna was baffled at how Yamamoto was able to handle that much pressure.

Just like Tsuna always got the blame whenever her team lost, Yamamoto got all the praise whenever his team won.

To most of the school, it was like there were no other members of the team whenever they were on the team and thus, none of them actually put any effort in playing, supposedly knowing exactly what the end result was going to become simply by having either Tsuna or Yamamoto on their side.

And of course, because they never make any effort, of course they find themselves correct in their assumptions.

At the moment however, Tsuna wasn't thinking about the up-coming game at all, her mind was focused on what was circling around the schools rumour mill at the moment.

Specifically, the A.A aplication test.

It was only the third day in which the A.A. has actually been a thing, and it has already marked it's spot as the hardest course to get accepted into.

Apparently, if you want to aply for the course, Reboyama-sensei brings you into the classroom one by one and sits you down to answer a few questions on the desk screen, only as you do this, the teacher sits at the front of the room and spend the few minutes you answer the questions staring at you, not even blinking.

When you're done with the test, the teacher barely even glances at the answers before telling you that you are not suited for the course and sends you away.

This just made Tsuna wonder…

Why did Reboyama want her in the class?

Sure, she was rather confident that she'd be able to answer the questions without being bothered by his staring as she's gotten more than used to it over the few days he's lived in her house, but who is to say she would even answer the questions right? According to the students he never gives the same questions to the same students and they are each one more confusing than the other.

A presense at her side snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Sawada?" a soft, barritone voice asked, making Tsuna turn around to the sound.

It was a boy in her class, with soft wavy locks of chestnut hair sitting on top of an androgyneus head. His built was one she knew though, she'd be pretty stupid if she didn't.

A balett built.

"Can I help you?" Tsuna asked, brushing a few hairs behind her ears as she took in her classmates pale blue eyes staring down at her.

It was quite unnerving to say the least.

There was no layer of ill will in it, like the majority of her classmates that were obviously straining themselves to be nice to her, even though they did slip up every once in a while when calling out to her.

Dame-Tsuna.

Tsuna could have sworn she saw a light blush forming on the boy's surprisingly sharp cheekbones.

"I-I was just wondering." The boy stuttered, almost collapsing on the bench next to her, making her flinch a little. "When are you returning to balett class?"

The question seemed to be so out of the blue that Tsuna found herself blinking in shock.

"Why are you wondering?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"It's just…" the boy said, eyes locked onto his hands where he appeared to be in the middle of wringing his fingerbones out of their joints. "I like seeing you dance."

Tsuna felt herself thrown out of the loop.

"What?" she asked, voice barely more than a whisper.

Thankfully, the boy seemed to have caught it.

"Sawada… I've seen a lot of dancers over the years, and not a lot of them have what you do."

This brought a frown to Tsuna's face, shifting her gaze back and forth between the young man and the crowd in front of them.

"A lack of balance?" she asked hesitantly, wondering what in the world this person could be talking about.

To his credit, the man only let out one small chuckle, one that actually sounded surprisingly nice from where Tsuna was sitting.

Finally, he raised his head, looking directly at her.

"Determination."

Once again, Tsuna found herself a little thrown off.

She hadn't been able to become determinated about anything before, it always screwed up her brain. What had willed her to continue before had been just that, a strong will. And, maybe stubborness and perseveerense that may have made it appear as though she was determinated…

It was still strange to have someone say that about her dancing!

The man hadn't stopped talking.

"I suppose that comes with your… lack of balance, but I have always admired the ammount of work you put into every step in every coreography handed to you." He was looking back at his hands again, wringing his fingers in what Tsuna suspected was a nervous habit of his, though why he would be nervous around her… she didn't want to believe that. "You may not think it, but…" the man continued, swallowing slightly before he raised his head again, looking her right in the eyes. "You're a great dancer, and I personally want to see you back in the studio."

Oh no…

He was.

Tsuna watched, wide-eyed as the young man stood up, the coach having blown his whistle for everyone to take their place with the team they had been picked for. Blinking, Tsuna decided to take the chance.

Nothing would change if she didn't try for it.

"Hey!" she called out, making the young man pause and look back to her, his own eyes wide now. "I'm sorry…" she said, looking rather sheepish as she brushed some hair behind her ear. "I've never really seen a purpose to learning all my classmate's names."

For a moment, the man looked a little hurt, but Tsuna could clearly see the gentle understanding in his eyes.

"Fujitaka Sasuke." He answered her unasked question.

The name made Tsuna's eyes widen a little bit more.

She knew that name. She'd heard it when she was locked up in that white-painted prison.

The second person to try and save her life, according to Yamamoto.

"You sent me roses in the hospital?" she asked, not really knowing where the question came from, but she just got the feeling that she already knew the answer.

Fujitaka just gave her the gentlest, most genuine smile anyone outside of her family has ever given.

"You deserve them."

And with that, he turned back around, and joined the rest of the class for the game, leaving Tsuna sitting there, dumbfounded.

* * *

 ** _May 7_**

 ** _Thursday 2215_**

The class watched in shock as Tsuna gracefully moved her hand over the smart-board, answering the question she'd been asked, and as she continued with the equation, the smarted people in the class realized that she was solving it using the correct method, as well as reaching the right answers using the method.

Finally, she set down the board pen, turning around towards the teacher, whom looked at Tsuna with a kind smile.

"That is correct." She stated, gesturing for Tsuna to return to her desk.

As luck would have it, Tsuna misjudged the distance between the small platform and ended up loosing her balance.

Everyone watched with little interest, used to Tsuna tripping, but then… Tsuna expertly twisted the foot still connected to the floor, forcing her falling body to spin around, making her back face the ground. Then, with confidence that they didn't know she had, she put her other foot down behind her, forcing her body back up in an ellegant arch.

For a long moment, even after Tsuna had collapsed, blushing, back in her desk, the class remained in a state of shocked silence.

* * *

 ** _May 11_**

 ** _Monday 2215_**

"You know you didn't have to come with me right?" Tsuna asked, throwing a glance towards Yamamoto as she stopped in front of the therapists house.

"Of course I did." Yamamoto insisted, patting Tsuna on the head. "I need to make sure you actually went here."

Tsuna frowned, knocking his hand away.

"I would have gone even if you didn't walk me you know." She said, giving Yamamoto a look.

"Alright." Yamamoto laughed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You take care of that trauma." He ssaid, stepping away from her whilst pointing a humouring finger at her.

Tsuna gave him a look of light annoyance, watching him disappear down the road before she turned her attention back towards the door.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, only to freeze in place once the sight of what was on the other side of the door registered into her brain.

Takahashi, was standing in the middle of the waiting room.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you so much for reading, please leave a review, tell me what you think, don't just leave the one word, that doesn't tell me anything, if anything it makes you sound bored.**

 **If you want to know what names I'm beating myself over the head trying not to use, just ask, because it takes a LOT for me to not write the other names that I want to write.**

 **I'll be back when I can, I've got work during weekends so I probably won't be able to do a lot of writing.**

 **This has been...**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	5. Scene 5: A changed Lifestyle

**AN: Alright… TRIGGER WARNING! Because it is needed.**

 **Lots of violence happen in this chapter, the second half of the chapter is practically, nothing but violence because I was shocked to discover that this Lady is very much into making her characters _suffer_ as much as she can, and I'm LOVING it, and so, stuff will happen. Those that have read "it's in her Blood" may think they know what will happen but I have changed it up a bit because there are only so many times a girl can get sexually harassed in a story.**

 **I am fucked up.**

 **On another note, there was someone who asked me weather or not Sasuke was a borrowed character or a top of my mind OC. I will tell you that he is neither. He is an OC but he was definitely not off the top of my mind, only his name was. When I first created him he was known to me as Donovan Picket and he has a storyline coming to him in future Acts (sequels).**

 **I will tell you right now that there is no use asking me to pair up people, because I already have the people paired. It definitely isn't going to be an Allx27 story (a term my brother facepalmed over "OH MY GOD, THERE'S A TERM FOR IT!" when he found out), I have Tsuna's love life planned out.**

 **It's not going to be Reborn because that ship isn't my cup of tea.**

 **Whilst I love 1827 I have… OTHER plans for our dear… dear prefect (EVIL LAUGHTER).**

 **No use asking me the relationship between Tsuna and Hibari, because really, I have WAY too much fun torturing you by holding off the information until the climax of Act 2: Lost in Smoke (yes, I have planned that far).**

 **As for Reborn's nice nature towards Tsuna… he hasn't even given his real name yet, you really think he'll act like in canon when he's trying to pass off as a teacher?**

 **I'll answer all qestions that are not too specific, or I will simply answer the ones I feel I can get away with, or simply answer them as vaguely as possible, because… I'm evil.**

 **With all this said.**

 **Here's your chapter.**

* * *

 **Scene 5:**

 **A changed lifestyle**

For a long moment, the two teens just stared at one another, frozen to the spot, unsure of what they were supposed to do. She certainly had the urge to run away from the scene, ignoring the fact that she had been practically ordered to go to the office and just, lock herself up in her bedroom for another couple of days.

It was only her sheer stubbornness that kept her feet nailed to the floor.

It took a while, But Takahashi finally screatched behind his ear, groaning a little before taking a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"You here for a therapist session?" he asked, sounding very awkward.

This wasn't the best opening sensentse, and he knew it.

Tsuna had to swallow before she sound bring her voice out, though she couldn't do that whilst she was still looking at him.

"And who's fault is it that I'm here?" she asked bitterly, wrapping her arms around her waist, covering up the area where he had managed to shoot her.

Takahashi seemed to understand this action.

"Fair enough…" he sighed, putting his hands into his pockets as he kicked at the floor.

The silence between the two of them was deafening.

"Look… Sawada." Takahashi finally spoke up, voice shaking slightly. "I'm sorry."

Tsuna froze at his words, her breath catching as her eyes widened.

"What?" she whispered, her whole body stiff with the nerves that were building up inside of her. Had she not been so distracted by Takahashi's mere presence, she probably would have noticed the tingling sensation that was slowly moving up her arms, starting from the tips of her fingers.

"It was only meant to scare you." Takahashi tried to explain, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I never intended to actually injure you like that."

Tsuna rolled her eyes at his words.

"Oh, and that has kept you from pushing me down the stairs?"

Takahashi groaned at her tone, stratching himself behind the ear in an action resembling a dog.

"I've seen you be pushed down stairs before, you're always fine." He argued, holding his hands out in front of him, gesturing over her entire tiny body.

"Big shock!" Tsuna almost screamed, throwing her hands out at her sides. "I wasn't the first time it happened!"

Tsuna would have thought back to said day, reminiss on the pain she'd felt when she'd tumbled down each step before blacking out at the bottom, but truth be told, she had no memory of said tumble down the stairs of even at what time exactly she'd blacked out during the fall, because the blow she'd taken to her head during that time, had made her forget all about it, that and more.

For a moment, Takahashi just stared at her.

"You're… surprisingly sarcastic." He commented, voice dripping with disbelief.

"No way…" Tsuna exclaimed, her voice a little more than laced with sarcasm. "With _my_ history, I would have thought I was a romantic." She would probably have glared at Takahashi had she not believed she would have collapsed into a pile of broken nerves should she try to.

Takahashi stated at her for a moment, eyes wide at the surprising character trait that he would have never expected the girl in front of him to posess. She'd always been so quiet, refusing to talk to anyone who decided to adress her. Now that he thoughts about it… she'd probably become used to people not really having anything important to say to her, and thus… she just stopped talking all together.

The guilt welled up in him as he thought about everything she's probably been through.

"Seriously though…" he muttered softly, staring at the side of her face. "I really am sorry."

It took a few deep breaths, a hand resting on top of her chest to calm down her speeding heart before Tsuna managed to find her voice again, and even then, it was hesitant, shaky.

"I accept your apology." She said slowly, hands clutching at her upper-arms. "But I don't forgive you."

Takahashi nodded, having understood that this would most likely be the case.

"Alright…" he said, stepping up towards the door. "Well, I don't suppose I'll see you again?"

"For the sake of my nerves, I hope not." Tsuna replied barely louder than a whisper, refusing to look at the man.

To his credit, Takahashi actually chuckled at her words, shaking his head as he walked past her in the doorway, taking a moment to look her right in the eye, allowing her to see the full extent of his emotions.

"Take care."

And with that, Takahashi disappeared out the building, leaving Tsuna staring after him before she took a deep breath, shaking her head as she fully stepped into the building, closing the door behind her.

* * *

 ** _May 13_**

 ** _Wednesday 2215_**

A test.

Her class was having a test for the first time since Tsuna returned from the hospital. The class was sitting in their seats with their screen pens in hand, some even twisting them as their nerves got the better of them, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Tsuna found that she was not a part of these people.

She felt surprisingly calm, even though she was well aware that her brain should have already started to crumble.

It was a strange thing, being reminded that she didn't have to worry about what had previously caused plenty of problems for her.

She could feel eyes on her.

Her classmates expecting her to suddenly revert back to the patterns they have come to acossiate with her.

A finger tapped her on the shoulder, making her turn around.

There sat Yamamoto, giving her one of his big smiles and holding up a thumb in that universal, good luck gesture.

Tsuna couldn't help the smile that spread over her mouth before turning back around.

* * *

 ** _May 15_**

 ** _Friday 2215_**

Apparently, the changes to the character everyone seemed to have believed was Sawada Tsunako was pushing her classmates to what they probably thought of as the brink of insanity.

She's been so different, which had made everyone watch her more, and because they watched her more, they couldn't help but to notice that she noticed things all around her. Sometimes she didn't even need to see someone. It was like absolutely nothing surprised her even though many of her classmates have attempted to do so the past couple of days, trying to see if she would fall over like she would have done before she was shot.

It was like she had eyes at the back of her neck!

And so, that day, one of the members of the athletic division who was currently using an observation exercise on his mirror screen to help him with volleyball decided to see just how good at observation she really were.

During lunch, he ignored his friends and settled down in front of Tsuna, causing the down to frown at him in confusion.

The boy ignored the look and shoves his mirror screen in front of her face.

"Solve this." He ordered, making Tsuna frown even more.

Finally, the girl sighed, taking the screen from his hands and turned her attention towards the test displayed on it.

The whole class was well aware what that boy had been doing on his screen for several days straight, he'd almost been slaving over it trying to improve his observational skills, and so, they turned towards Tsuna's desk when they realized just what the boy is forcing her to do.

For several minutes, they just watched as Tsuna's fingers flew over the screen, light ringing sounds resonating from the device to indicate a breaking of the personal high-score before finally, Tsuna removed her fingers and handed the device back to her classmate.

He stared at the screen, wide eyed, for several seconds.

"She beat my high-score…" he finally muttered. "With 10 000 points."

The class suddenly found themselves locked in place, eyes wide open as they stared at their seemingly useless classmate, watching her as she flexed her apparently tired fingers.

Yamamoto approached her from behind, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She only turned her face slightly in his direction.

"Wow." The athlete voiced, smiling at the girl. "Sawada."

Tsuna rolled her eyes before she focused on the ceiling.

"Are you really surprised?" she asked, knocking is hand off of her shoulder before she turned her torso around to face him more head-on than she did before. "I'm arstist Yamamoto-san."

Her class fromed at her words, shocked that she would claim to be good at anything, until they heard Yamamoto give off an amused snort, putting his hand on her head to ruffle her hair.

"True."

He was confirming it?

Why was Yamamoto confirming that Dame-Tsuna was good at something?

The only one seemingly brave enough to ask the question on everyone's minds was Fujitaka Sasuke.

"Artist?"

Turning towards the other boy, Yamamoto only smiled even more. If that was even possible.

"Yeah!" he esclaimed, moving towards his own desk, digging through his bag before he pulled out a carefully folded piece of paper that looked as though it had been carefully perserved. Yamamoto turned back towards the class, carefully unfolding the paper. "Check this out." He turned the paper around, holding it out towards their classmates. "She gave it to me for my birthday."

Immediately, the class broke into absolute chaos, freeking out over the hand-drawn sketch Yamamoto was holding out, not to mention just how well made it was.

Tsuna rolled her eyes, leaning her head onto her knuckles.

Was it really that hard to believe she was good at something?

* * *

 ** _May 20_**

 ** _Wednesday 2215_**

It was the day.

The day when they were to have their tests returned to them, and kind of, sort of, the day the class were finally going to get the final proof that Sawada Tsunako really hadn't changed and she was still the same useless self that she's always been. They could still silently make fun of her, even though Yamamoto has expressed his desire for them all to treat Tsuna just like every other student.

Finally, the scores appeared on each of the students desks, and everyone collectively threw a glance at Tsuna.

Said girl was staring at her desk-screen, eyes wide in shock.

46 %.

She'd passed the test.

It's not exactly a passing grade, but she didn't have to retake the test, and that was a big enough change that it left the whole class in a state of silent stupor.

The only one not really surprised, was Yamamoto.

Eyes narrowed, the athlete made up his mind.

Bending foreward, the athlete tapped the artist on the shoulder.

"Hey Tsuna." He spoke up, making the girl turn around towards him. "You still on those pills."

This made Tsuna frown, as well as several other members of their class as his question registered into their brains.

"Of course I am." Tsuna confirmed, thinking back to the two bottles that were currently chilling in her bag, waiting for lunch when she'd pull them out like she'd done every day since she first got them.

She still got the strangest feeling from them, but that didn't mean she wouldn't take them.

Frowning, Kondou Yuki rose slightly from her desk.

"What pills?" she asked, voice drenched in suspicion.

Tsuna rolled her eyes.

Did they think she was taking drugs now to make her scores better?

Apparently, Yamamoto caught onto this as well, as he stood up from his own chair, facing their class president with the fakest smile Tsuna had ever seen on his face.

"The pills the doctors gave her to help her brain." He explained, sounding as though it was the most obvious thing possible.

Which, Tsuna actually suspected that it was, seeing as she had just gotten out of the hospital. She actually would have been more surprised if she hadn't been perscribed some sort of medications.

That just showed how mean her classmates could be.

"Her… what?" Fujitaka asked, throwing a worried look to Tsuna.

Sighing, Tsuna reached out a hand to grab Yamamoto's wrist, but he shook her off.

"Yamamoto-san…" Tsuna tried, but it didn't look as though Yamamoto had any intention of stopping.

"Apparently, a part of her brain refused to develop when she was younger which gave her a function handicap." His smile slowly slipped away from his face with every word that escaped his mouth. "You know, not being able to think straight or tripping whenever she's focusing." He ended the sentence with a hard look directed at everyone that had actively made it their business to bring Tsuna down.

"Oh yes."

"You've all been bullying a handicapped person."

* * *

 ** _May 21_**

 ** _Thursday 2215_**

She should have seen this coming.

She had noticed the looks thrown at her through the corridors as she walked between the classes. She could feel the heat of the gazes, the anger surrounding her as she moved through the school, but she'd never actually seen the people giving her those looks and with the patrolls living the corridors, she hadn't payed the looks any more attention than for whenever she felt them.

She prided herself on her observational skills, for nature's sake!

How could she have let her guard down!?

She had been walking home from school that day, stopping for a few second in front of a vending machine and ruffling through her bag to see if she had any loose change anywhere in there. The afternoon such was glaring down at her, heeting up the air around her even though it was only late May.

She had been having this strange feeling of dread ever since she had stepped out of the school gates, out of sight from the watchful eyes of patrolling prefects, but she hadn't payed any attention to it, too eager to get home, too hot to care.

Stars she wished she had done that now.

As her attention had been focused on the insides of her bad, and her ears had been filled with the sounds of her own things being shoved around inside of it, she never noticed the shadows, or the multiple sounds of footseps approaching her from where she'd just come from.

That is, not until one arm had wrapped itself around her upper-arms, and a hand slammed down over her mouth.

As her arms were suddenly pinned down at her sides, her bag fell out of her hands, making her belongings scatter over the pavement, the glossy cover of her favorite sketch-book blaring up at the sky in the light of the sun.

She tried, she really tried to get out of the arms but the more she moved, the more the person tightened his grip around her, clenching his fingers around her mouth the more noise she tried to make.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

Not just from the grip on her mouth but also because of the strain she felt on the skitches, the stitches that were just days away from being removed. She felt the bio-material loosen slightly from her skin.

"Well, well, well."

That voice, she knew that voice.

"What do we have here?"

Mochida Kensuke, her severnteen year old upperclassman stepped into her line of sight, his hands in his pockets and a look in his eyes like a predator, satisfaction, and something akin to hatered burried underneath it all, though why that look was warranted, Tsuna had no idea.

The kendo captain let his eyes wander over Tsuna's body, sizing her up, leaving unpleasant shivers running over every inch of her skin in their wake.

His mouth broke into a smirk.

"If it isn't the school looser." He chuckled, stepping closer to her.

Two pairs of laughter followed that comment.

Really? It… it wasn't even that funny.

Mochida leaned in close to her, close enough that she could feel his breath brushing over her nose.

Suddenly, she had to fight her lunch from crawling back up her throat.

When was the last time he brushed his teeth?

"You're surprisingly hard to catch Useless." Mochida said, reaching out a hand to poke Tsuna under the skin, his dark eyes looking even more frightening up close.

Desperately, Tsuna tried to pry herself away from the men, she tried kicking, clawing, even biting, but seeing as her feet were now dangling in mid-air, she guessed that that would be impossible.

Seriously, just how strong is this guy?

"Oh, don't try to run." Mochida said slowly, almost purring. "After all, you brought this on yourself."

Tsuna froze, staring up at mochida with wide eyes displaying her confusion.

Seeming to see said confusion, Mochida smirked even more, running his finger down the skin of her neck, stopping at the collar of her blouse where he twisted his fingers into the fabric.

"Your stepping over your bounderies Useless." He growled, getting even closer to her face. The only time Tsuna would ever be thankful that someone is covering her mouth with his hand. "Someone like you, hanging out with someone like Yamamoto Takeshi." Tsuna could feel the tightness of her collar around her neck, beginning to cut off her hair suply the more Mochida clutched at hit. "It just won't do."

Suddenly, Mochida let go of Tsuna's blouse, stepping back to jerk his head down towards an alley.

An alley that Tsuna knew was very deep dead end usually filled with discarded carboard boxes and housed a rather large trash bin.

Mochida walked first, allowing his "lackeys" to follow him.

They did, leaving Tsuna's things scattered over the asphalt.

It was then that Tsuna noticed the third member of the party, a tall lanky boy that she had seen every once in a while during archery practice on her way home from school.

Tsuna could feel the tears burning behind her eyes as Mochida stopped, gesturing with his hand.

The next thing Tsuna knew, she'd been violently thrown straight into the concrete wall, her fall broken somewhat by the pile of concrete boxes lining it.

Gasping in pain, worried that her stomach wound would re-open again, Tsuna turned to face the three men, revealing that the one to have held her was a tall man with a strong muscle build, obviously from the wrestling club.

What is the deal with the Athletic division and wanting to inflict physical damage to her?! If it hadn't been for Yamamoto she might have been traumaticed to the point of refraining to be anywhere near any member of that division ever again.

Mochida marched right up to her, grabbing a large chunk of her hair and yanking her up to face him, making her bite down on her lip to keep the cry of pain in.

Crouching down in front of her, Mochida clicked his tung.

"I don't know how you managed to work yourself into his circle, but it will end right now." He promised, tightening his hand in her head in a way that made her bend her head back, exposing her neck to him. "Someone needs to teach you a lesson on where you stand in the school food chain." He nodded along with his words, and a glance behind him showed Tsuna that his two friends were doing the same thing.

The school food chain?

What is this? A soap opera from the late 20th century?

"Afterwords, maybe you can give me some of what you have given Takeshi, huh?" Tsuna's eyes widened.

They… they believed that she was exchanging physical favors for Yamamoto to talk to her? How stupid are they or do they simply not keep up with the school rumour mill? Or maybe they did and just got a hold of the wrong rumor.

Suddenly, Tsuna found her face slammed straight into the concrete wall.

The pain was absolutely excrusiating, but she kept her lower lip firmly locked in between her two rows of teeth. Maybe a little too hard, she could feel a trail of something wet slipping down to her chin as she fell back against the carboard, fingers clenched into tight fists, trying to keep her tears from falling.

She wasn't going to give them the pleasure of seeing her cry.

At least… not after this little.

The tingles were back, the tingles that had become so very frequent over the past few days. Ringing through the tips of her fingers, moving to the rest of her hands quicker than they have ever done before.

The tingling evolved into a maor itching sensation when a kick landed at the side of her abdomen, and she felt the bio-material completely fall away from her skin.

Now, she was in danger.

Good thing she was too occupied panicking to properly register the itching in her hands.

She needed to get away from these men, but how was she going to do that?

She didn't know how to fight, she was already at a disadvantage with her height, and then there is the added danger of the still healing hole in her stomach that she really, really didn't want to re-open. She doubted these men would think to call for an ambulance should they realize that her stomach was bleeding rapidly. In fact, they would probably dump her in the bin and leave her there to die.

Was it just her, or was the temperature rising even more than it was before?

A pair of hands clenched around her ankles, pulling her away from the cardboard so that she was lying with her back on the asphalt, several scrapes forming over her skin as she stared up at the three men looking down at her.

All three of them were smirking.

"Truly, this is all your fault Useless." Mochida said, lifting his leg, preparing to bring it down on her stomach.

Thinking quickly, Tsuna curled herself in a way that her forearm took the kick in stead of her abdomen. Surely, she'd be able to survive getting her arm broken, anything to keep her stomach wound from re-opening.

This reaction , didn't seem to sit well with Mochida.

Bending down, he grabbed her by the hair again.

"You don't get to decide the target." He groled, slamming her head down onto the ground.

For a moment, everything became blurry, the lights too bright, and the hits that beat down on her didn't register as much, but that didn't mean that her body wasn't instinctively protecting the most vulnerable part of her.

Sweat was starting to drip down Tsuna's brow more like a tap that had been turned on that the small individual bead that it had been before.

Seriously, was she the only one feeling the head? It was like sitting too close to a fire, or the highest of fevers one could ever imagine having when down with the flu.

Her brain seemed to return to normal, just as Mochida slammed down her shoulder, sitting down on top of her to straddle her stomach.

Something glimmered from the corner of her vision, and her blood froze.

A knife. Mochida was holding a knife in his hand, slowly moving it up towards her face. The other two men moved to pin down her arms and legs, leaving no room for her to turn as Mochida pressed the tip of the knife to her jaw.

Alright! Tsuna felt as though she was on fire, how was none of them feeling the heat?!

"You know…" Mochida muttered, brushing some of Tsuna's hair out of her eyes. "You may actually be too pretty." He mused. "I'll just have to make your face fit your social status, should I?"

Before Tsuna knew what happened, Mochida had slashed the knife down the front of her jaw. It had come so suddenly that Tsuna hadn't had time to braze herself for the pain, which resulted in her letting out a loud, ear ringing scream of terror and pain. It ha just wrenched itself out of her throat.

This pleased Mochida.

"That's more like it." He chuckled, leaning down over her. "Scream all you like, no one is going to hear you."

He raise the knife again, this time moving it closer towards her eyes, the glint in his eyes absolutely evil.

"No…" Tsuna wined through the stinging of her jaw, trying to wiggle herself out of their hold, but only found them tightening their grips to a bruising one.

As if she wouldn't already have enough of those.

Mochida's knife moved even closer to her skin.

"No." Tsuna wined a little louder, eyes widening and fear swelling at the sight of the knife's tip slowly lowering towards her light-brown orbs.

Mochida only chuckled even more, Hand finding her bleeding jaw to keep her face still as he aimed his knife, lowering it even more, seeming to aim directly at her left pupil.

The heat was absolutely stifling now, she could barely breath, like she was sitting inside of an over.

The knife was as good as touching Tsuna's eye when everything burst.

"NO!"

The first thing that had told her that something had happened was the sudden outburst of pain from the man holding down her wrists only for said grip on her wrists to drop, then, the knife was away from her line of sight, Mochida scrambling away from her, eyes wide in terror as he stared at her and soon, the third guy joined him

The fear was clear as Tsuna stared at them, and soon, they were sprinting away from the scene as though their lives depended on it.

Confused and in pain, Tsuna moved her ams to push herself up, and it was then that she saw them.

Flames.

Bright orange flames lit up her hands, licking at her wrists. So bright in fact that it most likely had been impossible for the three men to have not noticed them, especially since their position had most likely burned the man holding down her arms, which explained the cry of pain.

Tsuna stared at the flames in silent terror, watching as they grew bigger and bigger.

Slwoly, the flames started spreading over the rest of her hands, climbing down her wrists, only growing more and more bright as they went, more fierce. And yet, she still couldn't feel any heat from them.

Had she become so scared that her bran has blocked away the sensation of her combusting into flames?

Wait… that, that's not possible.

This was even more frightening than anything she'd ever been through.

In a panic, Tsuna tried to stand up, only to fall over and catch herself on a wooden crate that was loitering in the alley.

The fire started instantly.

It started with just the one crate burning, but it soon spread over to the carboard boxes and whatever it was within the bin, surrounding her in the bright orange fire, locking her in the alley.

Everything, was ablaze.

The fear took over, she started screaming at the top of her lungs, frantically spinning around in the chaos, mind not working enough for her to try and figure out a way to save herself.

The fires were almost covering her whole arms now.

Trying to get away from the flames, Tsuna found herself on the ground again, her back pressed up as tightly as she could against the concrete wall, staring at the fires raging around her.

Her screams had long since turned hoarse.

It was her fault, she'd started the fires, fires originating from her own skin.

She could feel the fires eating away at her clothes.

So this was ere she was going to die huh?

She'd survived getting shot in the stomach, only to die from spontaneous combustion.

Tears started streaming down her face, mixing with the blood still pooling out of the slash on her jaw, only to evaporate in the heat that radiated all around her.

She was never going to see her mother again.

Or her father.

Or Yamamoto.

A small chuckle escaped Tsuna even as the tears still streamed.

She would even be happy to see that teacher again at this moment.

Just then, she spotted something through the flames.

A shadow.

A man.

A tall, lean man dressed in a familiar looking espensive black suit, sporting a matching black fedora at the top of his head. She couldn't see his face but she didn't need to.

It was Reboyama Kidou.

* * *

 **AN: alright, so that may be a little shorter a chapter than what I usually write, but as I am going to be busy for the rest of the weekend, I wont get much more time to write before Monday.**

 **Please tell me what you think, ask me questions, and I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as I can.**

 **This has been…**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	6. Scene 6: Suspicions Confirmed

**A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait, but my interest haven't really been all that cooperative as of late.**

 **I am very pleased to inform you that I passed my 15 week long psycology course! It was a very interesting subject that I really felt helped me in the development of these characters and how their thought process works and my teacher was just as exited over the massive response this story got as I was.**

 **She was lovely.**

 **Anyway, this chapter was rather hard to write for me as I had to emotionally place myself in a very uncomfortable possition but I did the best I could and I hope that I did a good enough job of it.**

 **I thank all of those that has left reviews for me, they always brighten my day.**

 **So please, enjoy.**

* * *

 **Scene 6:**

 **Suspicions Confirmed**

For a long moment, Tsuna could do little more than stare at the teacher in open shock, momentarily forgetting the bright flames still licking her skin, devouering her clothes.

Slowly, the man stepped through the flames, weaving through the roaring fires as though they were merely the no-name people you pass on the sidewalk on your way to somewhere important, and for some reason, it didn't look as though the heat or the fact that they were surrounded by a blazing inferno was bothering him. As a matter of fact, the flames didn't even latch themselves onto the fabric of his expensive-looking clothing.

The teacher didn't pause for even a second as he marched straight up to where she was still curled up against the concrete wall, burning arms held out in front of her as she stared at the approaching firuge, his dark eyes not revealing any form of emotion that could have told Tsuna exactly what he was thinking.

He was completely stoik. No emotions to read. The fluid movements of his body being the only indicator that he wasn't actually an android.

The closer the teacher got, the more Tsuna found herself unconciously press herself even further up against the concrete wall behind her. It wasn't until she could feel the pain of her skin being scraped as she moved that she realized what she was doing, but she didn't stop.

There was something about that emotionless look that sent alarm bells screaming in her head.

Funny how they decided to turn on when the man that has been living under her family roof arrived and not when her hands suddenly lit themselves on fire.

"Remoyama-sensei…?" she found herself muttering as the man came closer.

Slowly, the teacher crouched down in front of her, his emotionless eyes locking with her own, fiercely holding them in place as he opened her mouth.

"Calm down." He spoke, deep voice steady and the relaxed undertone washed over her.

Still… if he'd thought that would be all it took for her to calm down, then he had another thing coming with the way he alarms were still blaring inside of her head.

The teacher took a deep breath, allowing the slightest tinge of annoyance to seep onto his face.

"No." he firmly ordered, eyebrows furrowing as he leaned just a bit closer to her, obviously minding the flames that seemed to be ages away from ever dying. "Listen to me." He locked his eyes with hers again, allowing himself to show the urgency that he had obviously kept from her earlier. "You need to calm down."

Slowly, the alarms began to quiet down at the emotion drawing forth onto the teachers face.

Apparently, someone being able to block any and all emotion from being shown on their face was something that Tsuna's instincts did not take kingdly to and so they reacted rather violently at the sight of something that deffinately shouldn't be humanly possible.

No matter how hard anyone tries, ones true emotions should be able to show in body language, the color of their faces, or even the glint in their eyes. But this teacher's eyes never revealed anything.

It was like trying to read the emotions of a corpse.

No wonder the alarms.

The fear still raged through her tiny body, the heat of the flames not allowing her to follow the man's instructions.

"I…" she breathed, voice shaking as she tried to gather the words. "I can't…"

"Tsunako." The teacher sternly told her, successfully stopping the babbling before it even started. "Right now, you're trying to put out a fire with gasoline." Despite everything that was going on, Tsuna found herself frowning at the strange metaphor the man had come up with, not to mention the unfathomable ammount of understanding said metaphor brought forward. "Calm down!"

"I'm on fire!" Tsuna found herself screaming in a strange mix of annoyance and terror. "How can I calm down!?"

For a long moment, the teacher looked hesitant, looking away from her with his eyes closed before his expression set in a fierce detemination. His hands shot out, grabbing hold of Tsuna's furiously burning wrists.

"NO!" She screamed furiously, desperately trying to yank her hands away from him, but his grip made it like she was trying to yank them out of concrete shackles. "What are you doing!?"

He kept his eyes locked with hers, his face not contorting into pain like she would have expected. It forced her to calm down enough to not scream, but her breaths still came out in hiccups.

Glancing down, a gasp tore its way through her throat.

His hands…

His hands weren't reacting to the flames.

His skin wasn't turning black, red, charring or any other thing that she suspected skin would react when coming in contact with direct fire. Despite anything, his skin remained flesh colored.

On closer inspection, she did notice a small twitch in his eye to indicate that he actually were affected by the heat.

"Calm down, or your flames are going to eventually eat away at my hands." The man almost hissed as she stared at him in open shock at what he was doing. "Everything is going to be fine if you just calm down." He yanked at her wrists to force her to pay attention to his face and not his hands. "Breathe with me."

Nodding slowly, Tsuna closed her eyes, allowing herself to listen to the teachers heavy breathing. Each deep intake of air filling up her lungs before letting her chest deflate in a slow exhale.

Slowly, she felt the pace of her heart level out.

Eventually, she didn't need to force her breath to come out evenly.

The heat began to seep away from her direct premice, leaving behind little more than an irritating and percistent tingling sensation that probably would have been much more annoying had she not been so relieved at the absence of the heat.

Finally, she was calm.

"That's it…" the teacher breathed, slowly letting go of her wrists. "Open your eyes."

It took some time, but Tsuna was finally capable of doing as he asked.

They were gone.

The fires were gone, leaving nothing but her slightly raw, naked skin in it's place.

Of course, the fire around them were still raging on, but she couldn't bring herself to care about them, her attention was solely locked onto her flame-free limbs.

As she tried to keep herself from crying in relief, turning her hands around to get a good look at her palms, the teacher rose up from the ground, studying the roaring fire before the sound of ruffling fabric brought Tsuna out of her relieved disbelief, forcing her to look up at him.

He'd taken off his jacket, holding it down to her as he almost pointedly refused to look at her.

"Put it on." He said, looking very much like a colored statue qith how little he was moving, not even a twitch. "You can't go home in the state you're in."

The state she was in?

Confused, Tsuna glanced down at herself, past her hands.

Knowing now what such things might do to her, Tsuna had to keep herself from screaming.

She could actually still feel the flames churning underneath her skin, just waiting for the one moment she lost control and rage once again.

Her clothes were absolutely ruined, burned to a little more than charred, shreddes remains, covered in burns and ash, some patches still burning or embering, things she was forced to quickly bat away with her own hands, which actually made to ruin her blouse even more than it were before. Her bra was just barely spared, her body was covered in ash, bruises, and dried blood, and yet, there wasn't one single spot on her naked skin that showed any form of burn that she had been so sure she would have been covered in.

She looked like she was dressing up as a burnt victim but someone had forgotten the wound prostetics to complete the illusion.

This wasn't possible.

Was she going crazy?

No… that couldn't be right…

She glanced around her at the still raging fires surrounding them, the heat of said flames feeling considderably less warm than they had been when directly on her skin, but it was deffinately there.

They were deffinately there.

Hesitating, Tsuna reached out and snatched the jacket from the teachers grasp, quickly holding the piece of cloth in front of her chest like the only piece of protection she would be able to get in this situation.

And it probably was.

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the teacher.

She most likely would have been blushing furiously had she not been white-faced from terror at the moment.

"How is this possible?" she asked slowly, fingers clenching around the strangely tectured fabric held to her chest. She had spoke more to herself than anyone else. Taking a deep breath, she spoke again, looking intently at the teacher. "What's happening to me?"

He knew.

He had to know.

He obviously had a better idea of what was happening to her than she did.

"I can't answer that right now." The man answered quickly. At her frown, he let out a sigh of annoyance, shaking his head before he glanced out through the flames. "It's not a conversation for a burning alley." He explained.

Reaching down, he grabbed hold of her arm.

It was a gentle enough grab, but the mere factor that her skin was still very raw from the flames caused her to flinch at the contact, pain rushing through her arm as the man pulled her up to her feet, making sure that the jacket wouldn't fall from her hands.

"Come on." The teacher spoke, much quieter than he had done before. "Let's get you home." He glanced out through the fires into the opening of the alley. "I can hear the AESD closing in, and we need to be gone before they arrive."

That she could understand.

She could deffinately understand it.

There was absolutely no way the two of them could possibly explain the state she was in considdering where they would be found. She had a rather vivid image on how they could or even would react to the sight of her, she had many of them, and most of them would end up with her in some kind of laboratory.

No… not going to happen.

Turning her back to the teacher, Tsuna allowed her grip on the jacket to loosen, allowing herself to slip her slender arms into the sleeves of the strange, almost skin-like material, buttoning up the whole thing. It didn't surprise her when she found herself almost drowning in the size of the garment, the lenth of which ending at her mid-thigh and the sleeves almost entierly covering her hands.

But, as it covered up her now almost non-existed blouse, she didn't complain.

A pair of hands landed just below her shoulders, turning her around to see the teacher. He gave off this certain air of anxiety, something that Tsuna soon joined in on as the AESD sirens slowly reached her ears.

Hand once again returning to her arm, The teacher steared her out of the alley.

They wandered straight through the flames, once again, acting as though they weren't even there, even though they were desperately trying to latch onto her socks but apparently, they weren't all that successful as the two of them managed to step out onto the street with no stubborn flames eating away at what remained of her clothing.

Soon enough, the two of them entered the spot in which Tsuna had first been taken.

It was strange for Tsuna to see the place after having been surrounded by fire, and she became even more curious about the teacher when he bent down to pick up her bag from the ground. At a place where she knew she hadn't dropped it. She frowned a bit at the sight as she could have sworn that her belongings had spilled out of the thing when she'd dropped it, but everything was perfectly packed.

Walking with a hand on her shoulderblades and her bag thrown over his shoulder, the two of them moved down the street, trying to appear as though nothing was wrong despite her body covered in bruises and blood, despite her hair being even messier than it has ever been, and despite the tworn and burnt state of her socks.

Before long, the Automatic Environment Safety Department vehicle zoomed past them where were walking, but thankfully, the sensors on the vehicle didn't pick up on the fire residue that was most likely lingering on Tsuna's beaten body.

They did catch some attention from the people they passed, but thankfully, they didn't decide to do anything.

Most likely, it was due to the fact that she was being lead by a man she was more or less clinging to, a man whom had obviously given her his jacket. So whatever had happened had obviously already been dealt with and she was in no more need of any help.

It was strange, haing to trust the man she'd been very weary of since the moment he had arrived at her doorstep.

But… he knew what was happening to her.

She had no other choice but to trust him.

She would let him talk, but she reminded herself that she would always have the right to refuse anything he might try and make her do.

She would not do anything without having been given a solid enough explanation.

* * *

A few minutes later, the two of them finally stopped in front of the Sawada Hoursehold.

Before Tsuna could reach out towards the gate with her hand, Roboyama stopped her, turning her towards him instead, bending forward to meet her eyes in a way that she wouldn't have to strain her neck.

"Go inside, go to your room, lock the door and focus on your breathing." His words were an order, and yet his tone was distinctively gentle, still, she could feel the fear building up inside of her. The pressure of her flames increasing underneath her skin, like a shaken soda bottle just waiting for the cap to be loosened.

Half-paniked, Tsuna found her voice.

"Where are you going?"

"Stay calm." The teacher quickly ordered the soon-to-be frantic girl whilst giving her a sharp shake to momentarily shock her out of her frightened state. "I'll be back within an hour at the very most, so you will have to remain calm on your own for as long as you can."

The strange look in the man's eyes made Tsuna frown despite the fear still bubbling inside of her.¨

"What are you going to do?" she asked quietly, almost scared to know the answer.

Her question earned her a curious look from the man.

They didn't know one another, he had made several attempts to try and get to know her but she had always pushed him away every time he tried. Even the ink hadn't done much to make her lighten up around him, and yet she had managed to somehow tell some sort of intent on him with one look.

The revelation of that one skill the girl possessed almost made the man smirk.

"It's best if you don't know." The man answered, the corner of his mout twitching as he stepped away from her. "You just remain calm and I'll be back as fast as I can."

Stepping away was probably his worst decision at the moment, for the moment the distance between them was pushing a meter, her breaths started to come out in more hecting, hiccuping spasms, boarderline hyperventilating as he took yet another step.

Quickly, he was back in front of her.

"Breathe." He ordered, more firmly this time. "You'll do fine." He then gestured to the house with a jerk of his head once he noticed the terrified girl had gotten her breaths in more of less controll. "Now go."

He didn't leave any room for debate, turning around and walking away from her, leaving her in front of the gates of her house with her fingers tightly clenched around the straps of her school-bag as she desperately tried to keep her breathing in order like the teacher had instructed.

Slowly, Tsuna allowed her one hand to loosen in order to open the gate as she moved towards the house, each step looking even more painful than the one that had come before it.

Once entering the house, it didn't take long before Nana came out from the kitchen and spotted the state her daughter was in.

Tsuna knew her mother, she may not be all that close to her but she knew her. She blocked her mind from her mothers frantic questions, moving past her towards the staircase, expertly avoiding the older woman's flailing limbs as she tried to stop her in order to get an answer out of her.

Tsuna didn't want to talk.

She didn't think she could talk.

She almost ran up the stairs, sprinting to her bedroom where she threw the door open, bolting it behind her and for extra security, using voice command to ensure that her mother wouldn't be able to access the automatic emergency unlock system in order to get in.

She shouldn't have rushed, that really hadn't been a good idea.

The fires were now pulsing underneath her skin.

Gasping to keep her breaths at least moderately level, Tsuna pulled herself up the stairs and walked over to the bedside table as she almost yanked the pendant from her neck. Gently, she picked up the no-doubt priceless music-box from the surface and incerted the side of the pendant into the key-hole, giving it a good amount of turns before letting it go.

Thankfully, the pendant hadn't become disfigured in the heat of the fire.

She wouldn't have known what to do if she hadn't been able to wind up the music-box again.

The dancer immediately began spinning to the light, soothing melody that immediately filled the room, the movement of the device in her hands sending a nostalgic ease through her body, the melody itself filling her body with the cooling calm that it had so desperately needed.

With a heavy sigh, Tsuna settled down on top of her bed, eyes still pinned on the spinning figurine.

Memories of when she was younger filled her head, from younger than five and older than seven, the times she had spent with her father after he had come home from work one day and handed her that very music-box. He'd wind it up every night and allowed the melody to wash over the both of them before he had begun singing on the lullaby the melody had gone with, his deep husky tone souding rather odd with the light nature of the melody but Tsuna could still recall herself falling asleep to the sound.

She didn't know the lullaby. He had stopped singing it when she was about six and it had been in Italian so there was no way her young mind would be able to translate the text to Japanese, she couldn't even remember the words.

Her mind and heart filled with the memory, Tsuna allowed herself to collapse onto the bed, gently settling the music-box back onto it's designated spot as she snatched Shiro-bunny from the edge of the matress, holding the plushy tighly to her chest as she allowed herself to cry in the aftershock of what had happened.

It was too much.

Why did it have to be her?

"Papa…" she whispered slowly into the room, not wanting her voice to over-voice the melody. "What's happening to me?"

* * *

43 minutes had passed since Tsuna came home.

And for the entierty of those 43 mintues, Nana had been pacing back and forth in front of her daughters door, the first five of said minutes having been spent furiously banging on said door in a desperate attempt to get her child to open up and let her in, to talk about what had happened.

But alas, Tsuna had refused the woman who gave birth to her any entry.

What could have possibly happened to mess the girl up this much? Nana had seen her come home in a mess before but she had never been in that much of an emotional mess, always insisting that Nana would drop it every time she would insist on calling the principal to put an end to everything the students put her through.

Tsuna had always said that getting through the day proved that she was stronger than they believed her to be.

And Nana had seen that.

Her daughter was strong, much stronger than any other teen she'd seen enter her bakery.

To see her strong little wild-flower so broken and de-thorned like that…

Nana furiously nibbled at her thumb-nail as she paced, mind racing at the many different possible scenarios her beloved daughter could have gone through to have ended up in that state, one even worse than the other.

There was one scenario however that she absolutely refused to put on her long list of possibilities.

The sound of the front door opening down-stairs knocked Nana out of her thoughts, her attention snapping away from her daughters bedroom-door to the staircase, the brown eyes she shares with her daughter hardening at the knowledge of who had just returned.

Her daughter hadn't come home alone, the jacket she had been wearing proved that.

Anger boiled up inside of the woman's admittedly small stature as she rushed down the hallway, almost jumping down the entire staircase, landing just in time to see the teacher close the front door behind him.

"Reboyama-sensei!" the tiny woman bellowed as she stormed over to the teacher. "What the hell happened to my daughter!?" she screamed her question right in the man's stupidly handsome face.

Of course, her Iemitsu was several times more handsome.

"Sawada-san…" the man muttered as he took off his hat, his long fingers running through his already messy hair all the while an exhausted sigh slipped from him.

"You sure you want to know that?"

Nana watched, fury rising inside of her as the man put the hat back on, making her take note of his lack of jacket and his rolled up sleeves. She shook her head to get her mind back on track.

He was trying to throw her off?

Was he seriously trying to make her change the subject?

The rage inside of her just kept building, pushing to the breaking point.

Nana was not the king of woman that would fall for any form of trick of that nature.

"Reboyama-sensei…" Nana found herself almost growling as her face formed into a glare that she directed at the man in front of her. "I watched my daughter, my only child, walk through that door almost 45 minutes ago looking as though she'd just been run over by a hover-modile!" she pointed a frantic finger towards the staircase before she screamed at the top of her lungs. "WHAT HAPPENED!?"

The teacher looked her over, then, with a sigh, he put his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not really sure." He answered, making Nana drop her hand. "I found her like that in an empty alleyway on the way back from the school." He didn't look at the woman as he moved to roll down his sleeves.

The action cause Nana to briefly wonder what had made him roll them up in the first place.

Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle that had presented itself to Nana the moment Tsuna had came home began to fall into place, and if her anger could become even worse than it already was, than it just did.

"Those fucking bastarts…" she growled, surprising the teacher at both her curse and the absolutely murderous expression that now took over her normally gentle, kind, and happy features. "She's just starting to piece her life together and those demons go and do that to her!?" the woman stompted her foot, her fist clenching at her sides as her whole being spoke of silent muder.

For a moment, Remoyama honestly feared for the lives of the perpetrators.

His lip twitched, his smirk almost slipping onto his face at the woman's reaction.

"Sawada-san." He spoke up once he finally got controll of his facial muscles, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder to make her turn back towards him. "Please calm down." He spoke much like he had done with her daughter just over an hour earlier.

"How can I!?" The woman screamed in a reaction that almost perfectly mirrored the reaction of her child. "My daughter is broken!"

Much to her annoyance, the teacher rolled his eyes at her words.

"No, she's not." He argued firmly, emotionless eyes piercing her own. "If she's your daughter, then you should know that she's must stronger than that." His voice was almost annoyed, the fact that his eyes were still locked with hers starting to make the japanese woman uncomfortable. "She just needs someone to remind her of that fact."

Taking a few deep breaths, Nana felt her anger slowly fading away.

Body shaking, she joined her hands together in front of her before allowing them to fall against her skirt, she resigned herself to the words she would have to force out of her mouth no matter how much she really, really didn't like them.

But truth be told, she didn't have any other option.

"Then you'll have to talk to her." She mumbled out with a heavy sigh, shoulders trembling under his hand. "She won't even let me into the room." Her voice hiccuped as she spoke, her eyes clenched as she desperately tried to keep herself from crying.

"That was my intention." The teacher stated before he rounded the woman and made his way towards the stairs behind her, only to stop before he took the first step up.

"Don't worry." He said, not turning around towards her. "I'm her teacher now, I can take care of her when in school."

Nana's thumb-nail once again found its way it between her teeth.

"Please do." She whispered, watching as the teacher started walking once again, disappearing up the stairs.

Once again, Nana felt absolutely useless where her own daughter was concerned.

* * *

Reboyama stood in front of Tsuna's bedroom door, looking at the artistic name-plate as he tried the door-knob. Of course, he found that the door was bolted from inside, no doubt to keep her mother out. He wouldn't be surprised if any and all automatic emergency unlock systems were disabled as well.

Well, the teacher was not her mother.

Speaking of said mother, he could feel her eyes digging into his back from where she was watching him from the dop of the stairs behind him.

Releasing an annoyed sigh, he raised his hand to firmly rap on the door.

"Tsunako." He called out into the silence of the other room, his voice deffinately coming in muted on the other side. He could only hope that she actually heard him. "Open the door."

Sure enough, it barely took more than a few seconds before the sound of the door softly unlocking rang through the air, allowing the teacher to open the door and step inside, only for it to immediately lock up again once he closed it behind him.

A good move, he thought, as there was no telling weather or not Nana would try to enter after Reboyama had entered.

For a moment, the teacher just stood there, allowing himself to listen before he moved, and what he heard caused his eyes to momentarily widen.

That melody… it couldn't be, could it?

Walking up the stairs, the first thing the teacher noticed was the messy head of golden-brown hair burried among the multiple soft pillows lying at the top of her bed, her arms tightly wrapped around the white plush rabbit as her legs pulled up so that her tiny body had the form of an N.

He could feel that the room was a lot hotter than it usually were, a clear indicator that the girl's nerves weren't entierly within her control.

He threw a glance towards the bedside table where the music-box was located, the porcelain ballerina figurine slowly spinning as the device released that gentle tune into the room.

Her father must have gifted her with that…

"Your mother's really worried about you, you know." The teacher stated as he stepped up to the bed, watching as her slender shoulders drew in even further around the plush rabbit. He could practically feel the heat radiating off of her, just waiting for the moment where she would loose controll of her emotions and burst free.

"I think she would be even more worried if I were to burst into flames right in front of her." The girl shot right back at him, her voice coming out muffled through the plushies head.

The teacher watched as the girl allowed one eye to be visible, an eye holding a surprisingly steady look.

"Talk."

* * *

 **A/N: I felt like being evil and keep up with the cliff hangers.**

 **Anyway, I really hope that you humans like this and take the time to actually _tell_ me what you think, because those reviews are practically the only thing that's keeping this story alive sometimes.**

 **Also, if there is someone out there that knows Italian, I would like to ask that someone if they could help me in the creation of a lullaby. Only the lyrics of course as there is no way for the melody of something to translate directly to the written word. But anyway, if there is anyone that would like to help me with this, they will also be signing up for hints and foreshadowing that will most likely not come into writing until _several_ chapters into the story, maybe even Acts.**

 **Again, please tell me what you think and I'll be back with another chapter as soon as possible.**

 **This has been.**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	7. Scene 7: Reborn-sensei

**A/N: I have just discovered my burning hatered for long, drawn-out dialogue scenes.**

 **I had three versions of this "big reveal" conversation planned out and so I had to combine the three of them, which was hard because the different parts and questions of the conversations always happened at different times and so I had to cut and paste everything in an order that at the very least had a semblance of order and natural flow, which almost took an entire day in and of itself.**

 **Urg! It was tedious.**

 **Anyway, I thank you all for the enormous response and the reviews, even though I wasn't able to see them when they first started to trickle in which annoyed me immensly, I was still very happy to read your opinions, it always brightens up my days in ways that you wouldn't understand unless you knew me.**

 **Okay, no more stalling, you want the chapter and you're going to get it.**

 **So here it is.**

* * *

 **Scene 7:**

 **Reborn-sensei**

Her voice held the undertone of an order.

A voice that put the teacher in a situation in which he had to fight in order to keep his smirk at bay.

With a little work, she would be more than capable of surviving.

"What do you want to know?" he asked, keeping the amusement away from his voice.

The teacher watched as her fingers clenched around the plushie, once again burrying her face into it's head as she took one deep breath after the other, her legs drawing in even closer to her torso. The heat surrounding her body began to once again build at a frightening pace.

"What happened back there?" she asked, voice shaking.

"Nothing to worry about." The teacher answered calmly.

Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say as the temperature spiked within seconds. As black eyes moved over the girl, delicate-looking hands started to glow a bright orange color.

Quickly, the teacher settled himself down on the bed, the matress dipping down violently enough to make Tsuna's tiny body shake from the movement. The man grabbed hold of her shaking wrists, violently yanking them from where they had been wrapped around the plushie that was just moments away from meeting it's end.

"Tsunako, look at me." The man ordered, turning the girl around as he yanked her into a sitting position, forcing her to do what he asked of her. "What you're going through is completely natural."

Tsuna's eyes widened in what could have been confused for shock, but otherwise, her face seemed to be conforted in a strange kind of glare as she stared at the man in front of her.

"Natural?" she repeared, voice laced with a silent kind of disbelief. "What part of spontaniously combusting and coming out without a blemish could possibly be considdered natural!?" her voice grew and grew in volume with each words that passed through her lips, and then…

Her fingertips sparked.

It was a visible enough spark that both of their attentions immediately snapped to her hands, and the sight really didn't help with Tsuna's already frazzled nerves.

Immediately, The teacher moved his hands to her upper arms, giving her a shake.

"Breathe." He ordered, looking her firmly in the eyes. "You're right." He added, now sounding a lot more calming than he did before. "It's not natural." He agreed, but the tone he was using told Tsuna that there was more to it than that, and she was right. "For anyone outside of your bloodline."

This caught Tsuna off guard.

Momentarily forgetting her fear, she blinked at the man.

"Wha-?" he didn't allow her to finish.

"Tell me Tsunako." The teacher said, hands moving away from her upper arms, though he kept his eyes firmly locked with hers. "Have you ever been burned?"

Again, all Tsuna found herself capable of doing, was blink.

"What?"

The teacher wasted no time in enlightening her.

"Have you ever reached out to touch a flame when you were younger, or put your hand on a stove when it was on, or even picked up a cookie that had just come out of the over?" he looked her deep in the eyes, looking almost desperate for her answer. "Have you ever experienced the feel of extreme heat?"

Tsuna opened her mouth on reflex, almost rolling her eyes as she prepared herself to tell him that, of course she had, but to her surprise, the words caught in her throat. She couldn't get them out, and the more she thought about what he had asked her, the more difficult finding the words became.

She didn't remember much from when she was younger, but she did know for a fact that, even though she knew that she shouldn't touch fire or anything really hot as to not develop the serious injuries that could sometimes open the skin it it was bad enough like she had seen on Sakura a multidute of times or any other employee at the Crescent Bakery through the years, she couldn't recall one time when she herself had that type of injury.

And yet… one time, when she was nine, she had accidentally moved to take out a pan from the oven, forgetting to put on oven-mits in her rush to get to decorate the cake. Her mother had absolutely panicked when she'd seen her and rushed her over to the sink where she ran cold water over her hands for what felt like half an hour, spending the entire time comforting her, calling her brave and strong for not crying out in pain when she'd touched the pan like anyone else would have done.

Except…

She hadn't been in pain.

She had stood there feeling her hands almost go numb under the ice-cold water feeling absolutely confused as to why her mother had reacted the way she'd done.

It wasn't until days later when Sakura did the same thing that she'd realized how she should have reacted and she refrained from trying to take anything out of the oven ever since.

Now that she knew this… she felt as though she had missed out on an important childhood experience.

Slowly, other memories returned to her.

Playing directly with candle flames and wax for hours only for her mother to chew her out because she could, "hurt herself", and she had been confused them too because, at most, it had felt like moving her fingertips through something lighter than water but thicker than steam.

The first time she'd really felt any form of heat was when her arms were burning, and even then, now that she thought back on it, even that experience hadn't been painful.

Finally, she looked back up at the man.

"No…" she answered, voice low, eyes wide in disbelief.

The teacher nodded at her response.

"I thought so." He stated, lip twitching a little. "Everyone on your father's side of the family has a greater towards heat and fire than what normal people would considder natural." He watched with satisfactory as Tsuna's brown eyes widened. "Of course, just how resistant they are depends on how direct the ancestry, but it is still there." He leaned closer to Tsuna, a strange glimmer in those onyx orbs that made Tsuna feel a bit uncomfrotable. "I suspect that you have a lot more energy than anyone in your class right?"

That was an understatement, and something that she'd figured out herself a long time ago.

Several days when going to school, no matter how little sleep she'd gotten the night before, she always managed to keep up her usual behavior whilst blinking at the students who had gotten a lot more sleep than her almost falling out of their chairs after their desks automatically forced them awake when they leaned over them.

She'd never been dead-tired unless she'd been awake for days on end, but she'd never been really bothered by it, in fact, it was welcomed.

"Yes…" she slowly answered the man.

Now, he openly smirked.

"Another perk of your bloodline." He stated. "It is suspected that is it to make sure your family's energy sourses doesn't burn out as quickly as some one elses would have." He gave a brief gesture with his hand in the air. "See." He said, sounding less serious than before. "To you, it is completely natural."

Despite herself, Tsuna found herself nodding to his words.

"The only real down-side to this trait with be the increased sensitivity to foreign materials and rouch touches." His hand shot out to gently grab her by the forearm, holding it up as the sleeve of the blazer slid down to reveal her skin littered with horrible-looking colorful spots. "Bruises are easily formed." He stated as he pulled the sleeve back up, covering up the bruising again before he smirked up at her. "You're basically all spawning from that pea-princess in that short fairy-tale."

The princess and the pea. He's making jokes now?

"Th-that doesn't explain the fires." Tsuna forced the words out of her, stuttering slightly from the force and shaking violently at the last word even though she had been the one to say it.

That wiped the smirk from his face.

"Right, the fires." He repeated, despite clearly noticing the tremmor that shot through the girl sitting in front of him at the word. "It is actually the last stage of a three-level power sourse." He explained, holding up three fingers in the air. "A more generalized term for the flames on their own is actually," his eyes narrowed as he paused for effect. He must be doubling as a drama-queen somewhere. "Raw Anima."

A mix of Italian and Japanese, a language that Tsuna was more than aquainted with, not to mention fluent, so it took no time at all for her to translate the word in her head.

"Raw Soul?"

"Yes." The man answered immediately, sounding quite pleased that she knew the word. "We call it that because that's what it is." He explained. "Anima, in principle, is the manipulation and utilization of your soul's energy, and Raw Anima, is the materialization of said soul." He put a hand in front of his chest, almost as if he was trying to point on exactly where the soul was located. "Everyone in your fathers bloodline are naturally connected to this power." He let his hand fall back down. "Of course, not everyone is capable of actually producing it, but everyone is born with the potential of it." His eyes narrowed as he stared off into the air, his demeanor turning annoyed. "Some of them simply don't want to activate it."

Tsuna found herself frowning.

It sounded as though the man was personally offended that someone would not want to activate a power such as the one running through her bloodline.

But, for the moment, Tsuna couldn't bring herself to care.

"Then how come I didn't get this choice?" she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

Leaning back, the man let out a sigh.

"Sometimes, one isn't given." He looked at her with an expression that spoke more than she could gather in such a short period of time. "During times of great emotional stress, a Cuor DiLeone can be forced to awaken instinctively in order to protect themselves." He gaced at her almost pointedly as he said this, and this time, Tsuna understood the meaning behind the look perfectly.

Also…

Cuor DiLeone.

The sudden pure Italian words rushed over Tsuna, filling her with the strangest sense of almost foreboding familliarity.

"Lionheart?" she repeated, eyebrows furrowing. "What's with all the Italian?"

The man only smirked again at her knowledge.

"Cuor DiLeone is the term of which the people of your bloodline is refered to as a whole." He explained, leaning forwards again, resting his arms onto his knees. "DiLeone, being the last name the majority of your family and ancestry go by to more or less declare their lineage." He shook his head, giving Tsuna the impression of annoyance once again. "It's quite difficult to tell the main branched from the side ones anymore because of this." He glanced at her from the corner of his eye once the explenation was done. "You didn't know you were Italian?"

"Of course I knew I was Italian." Tsuna quickly deffended herself. "But a different name?" the man nodded. "I still have relatives there?"

The man raised an eyebrow.

"Why yes." He answered. "Quite a few of them in fact, you're so spread out it's impossible to keep track of you all should one find the need for it."

For a long moment, Tsuna just sat there, staring.

She had been begging both of her parents to tell her about their extended family for years but the both of them had never wanted to tell her a word, and now she suddenly discovers that she's got a small army of relatives on her father's side in a different cuntry?

How does this happen?

Shaking her head, she gathered up as much composure as she could.

"You keep repeating the word 'ancestry'." She pointed out, giving the man a look as though daring him to brush it off.

Thankfully, he did no such thing.

"I am." He answered as though it were as easy as breathing.

"Why?"

The teacher took a deep breath, silently telling Tsuna that this was going to take a while.

"Anima was first introduced to the world 400 years ago by the founder of your bloodline, Giotto DiLeone." He began. "He was well respected in his time even without the power he possessed and he mostly used it whenever it was deemed absolutely necessary. According to records, when he did use it, he was a force to be reaconed with." He stared off into space again. "It is described that the silent fury of the founder was the most frightening sight anyone had ever seen in their lives."

Tsuna took a moment to absorb this information.

She had an ancestor like that? Just how did someone like that look like?

Her hand moved up, brushing her hair behind her ear without her really noticing she was doing it, it was surprisingly steady despite the fact that her shoulders still hadn't gotten rid of that persistent tremmor.

She had to swallow before she managed to find her voice.

"Why can we do this?" she asked timidly.

"That is an excellent question." The man immediately responded. "Giotto never left any records on how he came to have the power, and many has tried to recreate it in other bloodlines with little success over the years." He actually let out a chuckle at this. "Most of the time, the subject burns up before the power can actually settle." Seeing the almost horrified look on Tsuna's face, he quickly changed the subject. "All that is known is that he passed on this unique talent to his descendants." He gave her a pointed look. "To you."

She blinked at the sudden statement.

"Why me specifically?"

The amusement almost radiated off of the man.

"Beacause, Tsunako." He spoke with a silent chuckle. "You're the latest to be born of the main branch."

Tsuna's eyes went wide, the words caught in her throat as the meaning behind the sentence fully registered.

"I'm… in direct relation to…" it was too much. The thought of her, the girl with the brain that had refused to fully develop at a young age, be related to a man whose anger had frightened what sounded to be hundreds of men. It just couldn't be true.

She shook her head free of the comment, sorting it away for later when she could probably handle the information better.

In stead, she focused on another thought.

"You mean to tell me, that there is a multitude of people running around Italy lighting themselves on fire?" she asked slowly, not looking at the man. "Papa included?"

"No."

The answer had come so quickly that Tsuna flinched at the sharpness of it.

"But… you said-" once again, she didn't get to finish her sentence.

"I said that those of your bloodline are born with the potential of using Anima." He elabourated. "However, the norm when using Raw Anima is for the person to use a specially developed object or weapon that they would use as their "match" of sort in order to materialize their flames as they are holding it." He glanced down at the girl's hands as she once again began to fiddle with her fingers. "Flames such as these are painful to the touch no matter how resistant you are."

Dread washed over Tsuna the more the man spoke.

"So… what I am really is unnatural." She mumbled.

To her surprise, the man rolled his eyes.

"Not at all." He said, making her look up at him in confusion. "Giotto, your ancestor, first activated his flames directly through his skin as well." Tsuna's eyes widened once more. "Only none of his decendants were capable of doing so without ending up with permanent scarring for as long as he lived." He took a deep breath before he kept speaking, the reaction to his own words caused a question to form in Tsuna's head. A question that she had to file away for later considdering the man looked as though he was only going to keep talking. "Not long after he died however, the second case of skin-released flames were documented." He pierced her with a meaningful look. "The gift you have is perfectly natural, it is just very rare. Only one of your kind can exist at the same time, you have to die before another can be born." Tsuna could feel a sense of foreboding creep up on her. "We call this person." The man paused for effect, Tsuna was seriously tempted to frown. "The Phoenix."

The Phoenix?

Seriously?

"This…" Tsuna mocked the man with her pause despite the tremmor in her shoulders. "All sounds like the premise to a fantasy novel."

"I suppose it does." The man replied with a smirk. "But you know very well that it is real." Tsuna glanced down at her hands, her skin beginning to tingle. The sensation made her furiously rub them as her skin began to glow. Seeing this, the man grabbed her by the upper arms. That was starting to become something of a regular occurrence. "The fires are natural Tsunako, they cannot hurt you if you do not loose control over them." He looked her right in the eyes. "They are yours."

Well, that was all well and good when you said it.

"I'm scared of them." Tsuna admitted in a breathy whisper.

"Don't be," the main ordered. Now it was Tsuna's time to roll her eyes, that was easy for him to say. "No really." The man spoke up, capturing her attention. "If you don't fear them, they can't controll you."

Tsuna found herself frowning.

This was too detailed, to informative.

"How do you know all of this?" she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

The man smirked that stupid, almost victorious smirk.

"I make it my job to know things." His job? "Also." He fiddled with the cuffs of his shirt, looking very pleased with himself. "I was sent here to train you, to held you during this particular moment in your life."

Tsuna blinked.

"Train me?"

"Yes." The man nodded. "I took up a class in your school so that I would be able to overview your progress outside of the house without having to appear like a stalker."

He had becoma a teacher because of her?

Even though he said it did it to not look like a stalker, right now, he felt like one.

"That's why you were so adamant about me joining your class." Tsuna mumbled, fingers fiddling as she spoke. "It's a class specifically for learning Anima."

The teacher smriked a little as he nodded, cofnirming her words.

"I named it, Anima Apprenticeship, but as I couldn't let any outsiders know what it was really about, it shortened it to A.A." he explained. "The principal was surprisingly accepting of every condition I put forward."

He wasn't entierly truthful.

He didn't believe the principal was surprisingly accepting, he had probably counted on that fact and had planned every step of the way in order to cement a place on the school faculty. It was just the feeling she got when he talked.

Of course, this feeling also brought forth a question Tsuna had temporarily put on the shelf as the time hadn't been right for it.

Now however…

"Who are you, really?" she asked slowly, leaning way from the man sitting in front of her, her eyes narrowed. Of course, the man didn't react the way one would imagine.

It just made her curiosity grow.

"The name I have chosen for myself, is Reborn." The man answered, a smug expression spreading over his features.

The name he had chosen for himself.

Meaning, it was not the name he had been given as a child, but some form of pretentious sounding alias that he had picked out later in life for one reason or another.

She didn't get to think about this fact for too long, the man probably realized her though process and immediately moved to stop it.

"Now." He spoke up, snapping her attention from her own mind. "Will you accept my tutolage, Sawada Tsunako?"

For a longer moment, Tsuna stared at the man.

He wanted to become her teacher in and outside of school to instruct her in a mystical bloodline ability that she had no idea she even had up till over an hour ago.

She didn't know the man, but she could still feel the fires churning underneath the skin.

Finally, she let out a sigh.

"I don't really have much of a choice." Came her response.

"No, you do not." Reborn agreed. Face once again taking on that stoik look, the man lifted up his hands, palms up in between the two of them. "Give me your hands."

Startled at the sudden demand, Tsuna shied away from the man.

"Why?"

"There is something that I need to check." The man answered, though, when she still didn't move to do what he asked, he allowed his expression to soften, looking her right in the eyes without actually showing any emotion in those orbs. "Please."

It didn't take much to realize that even now she didn't have much of a choice.

Shaking, Tsuna brushed a lock of hair behind her ear before she allowed herself to put her hands out towards the man, watching as his long fingers closed around her hands, almost swallowing them in the size difference between them. She shook as the man turned them over in front of him, looking at them with what she rexognized as an experienced gaze.

For a split second, she could have sworn she saw Reborn's eyes flash onyx to a bright, glowing yellow. It made her frown a bit for a moment before she decided to just brush the thought away.

Must have been a trick of the light.

Reborn watched as Tsuna's pale and bruised skin was coated by an aura of pale orange light, slowly pulsating at a pace that only serving to trouble him. The pulsating should have been something like the beating of a sleeping heart, slowly shrinking and expanding around the skin. But… with Tsuna, the pulsing was uneaven, irregular, fluctuating at an almost frantic pace. Which could have been brushed off as simply reflecting the state of her nerves, but even the pulsating should have had some regularity or pattern to it.

That was not good.

An uneaven rhythm indicated an unstable core, and that was incredibly dangerous for both her and those around her. It could end up with the flames getting out of controll, lashing out at anything and anyone.

It meant poor controll. And poor control is highly uncommon for a Cuor DiLeone.

How was that possible?

Frowning slightly, he looked up at the girl's wide-open face, the personification of gentle innocence, and suddenly, everything clicked into place.

"Damn it…" he cursed under his breath, his fingers clenching slightly around her smaller hands. He hadn't meant for the words to come out but the realization had brought forth a form of anger that he hadn't intended.

He really should have watched his words more.

"What is it?" Tsuna's voice shook in the build of fear that had suddenly come over her at the man's sudden outburst.

"It all makes so much sense now." He whispered as he let Tsuna's hands fall down to her lap, bringing a finger to his chin, sinking deep into his own thoughts for a breef moment, though he shouldn't have done so with the current state of Tsuna's nerves.

"What does?!" she asked almost frantically, her hands tingling furiously, just moments away from glowing.

"Nothing, it's fine." Reborn quickly corrected himself, putting his hands on the shaking girl's shoulders, forcing her to be still. "Keep calm."

Predictably, she did not react well to this.

"How can I?!" she screamed, her hands beginning to glow in her lap.

Quickly, Reborn looked around the room, frantically yet calmly around the room, searching for something, anything, that could help their case at the moment.

Finally, his eyes fell on a small group of metal buckets lining the wall. Pails of paint that were just waiting for the day that Tsuna decided to keep working on the scenery that she'd already established the theme of her room eventually taking.

Perfect.

"Work on your wall." He ordered, mantually turning the shaking girl's head in the direction of the buckets to ensure her thoughts were already moving in a different direction. "Keep your mind off of it."

He watched as her head bobbed into a shaky nod.

Taking a deep breath, Reborn rose from the bed, moving towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Tsuna's still frightened voice asked, making him turn back around towards her.

"Don't sorry." He ensured her. "I just need to make a few calls." He gestured towards the buckets. "You focus on your wall." He glanced towards the music box that had stopped playing some time ago without either of them noticing. "Play the melody." He locked his eyes with her one final time. "Don't think."

Turning back around, Reborn continued on the path he'd set out on.

The last thing he heard before he reached the door was the soft, timid voice of his new student.

"Okay…"

* * *

Closing the door behind him, Reborn paused in the hallway to fish his gem out of his pocket.

Swiping his fingers across the surface of the device, he quickly activated a certain secret speed-dial before pressing the gem against his ear, onyx eyes wandering over his surroundings to ensure that no one was listening in on the conversation her was about to have.

Finally, someone picked up on the other end.

"Nono." The man spoke before the one on the other end got a chance to say a word. "It's me." He leaned back against his students door, stuffing his free hand into his pocket. "It would appear that I do need him after all."

* * *

Tsuna was a fast painter.

By the time it had taken for Reborn to make his phone-calls, the girl had already begun the work on a very realistic river running through the grass-land she'd already created before he had arrived. Shades of blue and red, violent rapids and calm, clear currents clearly visible in the work.

No hesitation and with intent, she moved the brush over the wall in surprisingly graceful strokes despite the percistent tremmor still present in her shoulders. Reborn could feel his mood darkening drastically as the logical assumption of the reason behind this particular talents entered his mind.

She'd done it before.

Desperately turning to art whilst emotionally vulnerable.

She'd trained up her arm to remain steady whilst painting despite whatever state her nerves might be in, and this was prooving to be that skills ultimate test.

It was passing.

It should not be passing.

Aware of the state her nerves were in, Reborn ensured that Tsuna knew that he was in the room before he walked up to her, gently putting his hand on her shoulder to stop her arm from moving. Thankfully, she stopped in a way that wouldn't otherwise ruin the work she'd already done. She was still shaking under the material of his blazer that she was still more-or-less drowning in.

The small tilt of her head was the only indication that she was paying him any attention.

"You should clean up." He stated calmly, giving her fragile-looking shoulder a light squeeze. "You might feel better afterwards."

He didn't get much of an answer asside from a small nod.

Silently, automatically, Tsuna dropped her brush into a glass of water, the paint immediately seeping out into the liquid in swirls that momentarily caught the girls attention before she moved to put lids on the two pain buckets she used. He watched as she moved to her closet, quickly working the screen for the thing to eject the first available outfit on it's hanger for her to take.

With the change of clothes in hand, she disappeared into her bethroom.

Reborn listened to the door locking up before he let out a sigh, glancing around the room.

Teenage girls… he'd never been particularly good with them.

The temperature had dropped, which was good.

Now he just needed to ensure that it stayed that way.

As his eyes swept over the room, they caught onto a pair of bottles sitting innocently on top of his students desk.

Pill bottles, to be exact.

Eyebrows raised, the man stalked over to the desk, picking up the bottles in his hand before holding them up at eye-level as he studied them thuroughly.

"These are…" he mumbles as a frown etched itself onto his face.

* * *

 **A/N: Exposition, Exposition, Rushing out ASAP!**

 **Tedious, dragged out and I really, really hope that you like this because I seriously don't feel like adding anything more to this particular chapter. It may or may not be shorter than the other chapters but it has dragged out longer than it stricktly needed to already and I want to get on with the rest of the story.**

 **Please tell me what you think and I'll be back with the next chapter as quickly as I can, and the mere factor that I can write over 8000 words in a day will probably tell you how fast that can be done if I am interested enough and don't get caught up in exactly how I want a particular scene to play out.**

 **I love you all you beautiful humans.**

 **This has been.**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**

 **Again, please tell me what you think and I'll be back with another chapter as soon as possible.**

 **This has been.**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	8. Scene 8: Changing Things

**A/N: It takes a certain level of skill to finish a chapter at exact 5000 words, I couldn't help but to laugh when I realized I'd done that.**

 **I have to thank you people for each and every one of your wonderful reviews, they always brighten up my day whenever I realize I've gotten new ones. I literally giggle and clutch my phone to my chest like a frantic school girl with a crush.**

 **I'm 22 in October so that's clearly not the case.**

 **Anyway, I had a great time writing this chapter, it is the first one that is built up completely on new scenes and plot points that are not rewritten ones from the original fic and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.**

 **Well, what the hell and I doing? You guys want to get on with the story and what kind of Lady am I to keep you from it?**

 **Please, enjoy.**

* * *

 **Scene 8:**

 **Changing things**

Cold showers.

As a girl, Tsuna had never really felt the need for them, but the second she'd stepped in under the steady streem of water, she'd known that hot or luke-warm water simply wouldn't do it, and so, she's turned the temperature around and before she knew it, cold water pelted down over her.

Funny how the room still got filled with steam despite this.

Carefully, Tsuna washed the sweat, dirt, ash, and dried blood off of her skin, minding her bruises and the cut on her jaw as best she could, although every once in a while, a tremmor of pain did shoot through her body when she accidentally applied too much pressure on a certain spot.

She was no stranger to bruises, but this was the first time the bruises came from someone directly assaulting her with their own limbs rather than with the aid of a staircase or wall.

Compared to being pushed down a staircase, these bruises were nothing, but every shot of pain brought her back to that moment in the alley.

It took several minutes, but finally, she could actually feel the cold water in stead of her own skin making it luke-warm before it even touched her, and it was at that moment that she knew it was alright for her to step out.

Looking in the mirror was a frightening experience.

She'd seen herself in the worst situations before, but this was the first time she'd been unable to see her soul when she looked into her own eyes. She was boarderline dead inside because of the actions of three young men whom could seem to be able to grasp the simple natural phenomenon known as; change.

Shaking her head, Tsuna gave herself a couple of slaps on the cheek, taking a few deep breaths as she kept telling herself the same thing like a mantra in her head.

"You're not a freak, just mysteriously unusual."

And so, yet another motto had been added into her collection.

Looking back into the mirror, brushing her dripping wet and messy hair from her face, Tsuna was pleased to find that some of the life had returned to her eyes. Bracing her hands on the sink, she took a few aditional breaths just to ensure that her shoulders had stopped shaking.

Looking back into the mirror, Tsuna opened the cupboard to which it acted as a door, removing the bruising-salve from the shelf, thanking everything clean that she'd stocked up on the thing some time back as she carefully applied the salve to each one of her bruises, experience allowing her to smear it on each bruise that had manifested on her back.

The cut on her jaw was something she was less familiar with.

It had stopped bleading, thankfully, and from the looks of it, it wasn't all that deep, having not hit any major arteries it was prooving to be quite the superficial injury that didn't look as though it needed much attention.

After double-checking that the salve had fully dried, Tsuna finally allowed herself to get dressed in the knee-length half-sleeve orange dress she'd picked out in the principle that she shouldn't be wearing anything too tight-fitting when her bruises were healing up, the bruises that were already starting to tickle a little, showing that the salve was already starting to take effect.

And her hair…

Who cares about her hair?

Glancing towards the chair next to the door, she frowned at the sight of her ruined uniform, the black blazer hanging from the back, neatly folded and looking quite odd hanging over the pile of ruined cloth.

Finding comfort in the way the slowing fabric of the dress's skirt moved around her legs, Tsuna moved out of the bathroom, the blazer folded over her arm, her bare feet barely making any noise as they moved over the floor, closing the door behind her before she looked around for the teacher.

The thought that he'd become a teacher simply because of her was still mind-boggling to her.

It didn't take tong for her eyes to land on the man's lean frame.

He was leaning against her desk, fingers flipping through something in his palm with a frown on his face, almost as though he was silently wishing for whatever he was holding to deteriorate in his hand.

"What are these?"

He had spoken so suddenly that Tsuna found herself actually jumping, the tone of his voice wasn't helping anything either, dark, demanding, dangerous…

Before she got the chance to ask him what he wanted identified, the man lifted up a pair of very familiar bottles from the desk, holding them up in the air as though they were drenched in poison or contained a ticking time-bomb of sorts. She didn't need to look at the man's face to know that he was probably getting the same vibes from those things as she had been getting from the moment they had been given to her.

"Pills." She answered, walking up to the ma, blazer now tightly clutched against her torso. Reborn turned his dark eyes on her as she draped the blazer over the back of her desk chair. "The doctors perscribed them to me to help retroactively develop parts of my brain." She was pretty sure the man knew of her condition, but she didn't want to take any chances.

Who knows.

The man might have pegged her for a drug-addict.

But then again… he seemed to be too smart for making those assumptions.

Reborn's face crinkled up in anger, eyes momentarily snapping to Tsuna before he looked back at the couple of pills in the palm of his hand. Before Tsuna really had the chance to register what was happening, the man had chucked the pills into her trash-can without even looking, masterfully hitting a bulls-eye with all seven of those offending medicines.

Pin-point accuracy…

Tsuna's interest was starting to peek.

The man turned fully towards Tsuna, bottles in hand and a look in his eyes that sent a different kind of shivers running down Tsuna's spine. Different shivers than the ones that she'd been feeling on and off for the past few hours, these ones weren't based off of fear, but off of a strange sense of exited intrigue.

It was a confusing emotion, one that she suspected was unnatural for her.

"Stop using them." Reborn ordered, looking her right in the eyes as he forced the bottles to follow the same fate as the pills had before them, once again, he made a bulls-eye without even seeming to realize the ammount of skill he was showing off with that small movement.

Oh, but he did realize it. She could see the smuggness underlying the darkness of his gaze.

That bastard.

Tearing her gaze away from the trash-can, Tsuna took a deep breath before meeting the man's gaze.

"I won't argue with you…" she mumbled, having silently hated those pills since she'd gotten them. "But can I get a reason?"

The look in his eyes told Tsuna that he could tell that she'd been suspicios of the pills as well, if the small quirk of his mouth was anything to go by, but he quickly straightened out his expression.

"Artificial adrenaline won't help your handicap." He explained, stepping away from the desk as he brushed off his palms in thinly veiled disgust, he inspected the skin of said apendages before he kept talking again. "It wasn't caused by medical means, or lack thereof to begin with."

For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Tsuna found herself blinking mutedly.

Not medical?

How could it not be medical?

The doctors had all been perfectly capable of spotting her problem, so how in the world could it not have been caused through some medical thing that she wouldn't be able to understand no matter how hard she tried?

"Then…" she mumbled, unsure weather or not she should ask. "What was it caused by?"

This seemed to give the man pause, his shoulders stiffer than normal. She could practically see the thoughts rolling around in his head without actually seeing his face. She got the impression that he was debating on weather or not he should be telling her something or if he should keep it to himself.

If he did the second… she would let him know just how against she is that kind of thing.

Thankfully, that wasn't at all necessary.

Sighing heavily, Reborn turned around to face her, his face contorted into an expression of almost defeat when he looked at her.

"A sloppy Ashening."

Taken abak, Tsuna tilted her head in confusion.

"A what?"

"Sealing." The man quickly elabourated, taking a few steps towards her. "Someone saw the need to seal your Anima at a young age, but they obviously didn't know just how far the awakened power went in you and so the sealing ended up messy, unsafe, and as a result, affected the development of your brain in the process." He frowned as he looked her over, giving her once again, the impressiont hat he was seeing more than she could even begin to imagine. "Ashening someone is always risky business, but doing it on the Phoenix is down-right moronic, there should be a law against it."

Ashening, that makes three terms surrounding the strange power she didn't know she had.

Soon enough, she would have to create a dictionary to keep track of them all.

"And… it's gone now?" Tsuna asked slowly. "The seal?"

Reborn shook his head almost dejectedly.

"No." he answered. "It's been partically broken, hence why a part of your brain has begun repairing itself after so many years."

Tsuna's thumb-nail found it's way in between her teeth, she always did this when in thought. Her mother did it when worried, but Tsuna found that putting something between her teeth helped her think better more than anything.

"Can't the seal be completely lifted?" she asked, wrapping an arm around her waist, minding the bruises as she readied her thumb-nail an inch away from her lips.

"Not safely." The man answered, "Those pills were trying to force it open, which actually could have egged on your combustion." He said the last part more carefully than he started off his sentence, obviously still careful about what he was saying to her. "We can only hope to slowly peel away the seal piece by piece or else the fires can overwhelm you and burn you up from inside no matter how flame tolerant you are." He looked at her meaningfully. "Even on the Phoenix."

Tsuna took a couple of deep breaths, nodding slowly.

"No short-cuts." She translated, speaking more to herself than anything. "Got it."

She glanced down at her hand, still feeling a light tingling from her skin, she didn't actually feel the flames anymore so she suspected the tingling was just a side-effect from her skin not being used to… well, being used, in the way it had just been.

She didn't want to loose control like that.

"Exactly when does the lessons start?" she asked, glancing up at the man.

He looked pleased at her eagerness, but he put a hand on her shoulder, eyes reflecting the seriousness of the words he were about to say.

"Right now, you need to fully calm down." When Tsuna opened her mouth to retort he cut her off. "You may think you already have, but traces of the fires may still be circling through your body without you feeling them." He grabbed her raised hand, lowering it. "You spend the day clearing your mind of everything that happened today, allow the flames to completely run its course before we try to bring out a more controlled dose." He stepped away from her, grabbing his blazer from the chair. "We'll start tomorrow."

"Right…" Tsuna relented, watching as she man disappeared down the stairs and out the room, leaving her once again. Only this time, she was no longer all that worried about combusting at any second.

Now… what to do…?

* * *

Reborn walked down to the first floor, entering the kitchen where, as predicted, Nana sat at the table with her hands wrapped around a cup of tea that might have been warm at some point but had now long since cooled.

Reborn only had to take one step into the room when the woman's head snapped up.

She was in front of him faster than Reborn had the time to decide what to say.

"How is she?" the woman demanded, giving the teacher the most curious expression of mixed anxiety and fury.

Reborn allowed himself a small smile.

"She's fine." He promised. "Just give her some space today and she'll probably show herself by tomorrow." He rounded the woman, stepping up to the counter where the coffee machine was calling his name.

He'd delt with emotional teens before, several of them, but all of them had at least been aware of Anima before hand, and as he'd just discovered, Tsuna was the Phoenix, so the fact that she hadn't been aware of her own bloodline had only made both of their situations all the more difficult than it had already been.

Seriously, what were her parents thinking keeping her in the dark like this?

One of said parents walked up behind him as he removed his now filled cup of expresso from the machine.

"What should we do about the bastards that did this to her in the first place?" the woman growled, making the man turn to look at her, eyebrow raised in intrigue. "They cannot be allowed to just walk off after what they've done."

"I agree." Reborn said calmly, taking a sip from the cup. "However…" he held up a finger in front of the woman's face. "We have no way of knowing who it was that did this or even how to find them."

The dark look that passed over Nana's face almost made Reborn back away from her.

"Oh, I could find them…" she growled.

He was starting to see what had made Iemitsu so adamant about wanting this woman to be his wife all those years back.

"I don't doubt you could." He quickly replied to the furious woman in front of him, placing his free hand on her shoulder. "But how do you think Tsunako would react when she found out you did?"

That girl was something special indeed. He'd been watching her.

He didn't think he'd ever met a person that honestly didn't give a damn about what other people did to her no matter how effected she got from their actions. She didn't recent them, she just didn't care for them, she may not truly forgive them but she never allowed herself to hold a grudge against anyone. Even now, he suspected that she was finding ways to brush off what her attackers had done.

Truly, that girl needed to understand that some people find her life to be just as valuable as she saw others to be.

By the look on her face, Nana was having the same thought process as Reborn did.

Her fury changed to annoyance.

Annoyance at her daughters accepting nature.

"Damn it." She cursed, stomping her foot in a surprisingly childish action. "Why did Tsuna-chan have to take after her father?" she started pacing around the room. "If she'd taken after me she would have put an end to any kind of bullying years ago."

Reborn gave a light chuckle, making the woman turn to him.

"Would you really wish Tsunako was any different?" he asked with an amused tone.

Nana shook herself.

"No." she finally relented. "I don't."

And neither did Reborn. If there was one thing he really liked about his current situation, it was the fact that she really were as open hearted as she actually were, even if it did cause for a few rather annoying moments such as the one he was currently powering through.

It would be a great help to her sooner rather than later.

Nana put her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"Really." She sighed. "She's too much like Iemitsu for her own good sometimes."

That was all well and good in Reborn's book. He couldn't even imagine if the girl had taken after the woman that was standing in front of him right this minute.

"Don't worry." Reborn said, leaning back against the counter, bringing the cup up to his mouth. "I have already pulled a few threads at school to make sure that she won't have any more trouble inside the building." He took a long sip. "And now, when she's got the opportunity to make friends, she can have protection on the way home."

This prooved to calm down the frazzled woman.

"I hope you're right." She breathed.

"I'm always right." Reborn shot back, smirking over the lip of the cup.

* * *

 ** _March 22_**

 ** _Friday 2215_**

Tsuna hadn't gone to school that day.

It really wasn't the surprising as she seriously doubted the still fragile state of her nerves would be able to handle it, and so, she'd turned the alarm off the night before and allowed herself to sleep for as long as her body felt she needed.

Elven hours and 43 minutes.

It had shocked her when she'd women up, as normally she only needed around eight hours of sleep or less depending on what she needed to do the night before a school day, but now, she woke up hours later than she'd expected with a heavy body that still seemed to rest even though her mind at that point was wide awake.

It had been a weird moment for her, but Reborn had been quick to explain it to her.

"Activating the Anima has always proven to be the most exhausting time for almost everyone I know." He'd told her. "And that was just activating the core, yours fully unleashed directly from your body and you still managed to keep yourself awake for hours afterwards." He'd smirked as he'd told her the rest. "I know people that had lost consiousness completely after their first dealing with Raw Anima and slept for days, and here you are, wide awake after just a few hours longer a sleep than normal." He had nodded a bit to himself. "I suppose that is either because you're a Phoenix or because you're a DiLeone but either way, it is quite remarcable."

She didn't need anyone to tell her that actually having someone to tell her everything she was going through and why she was going through it was a good thing. She actually wished she'd had someone like that three years ago, but you can't have everything.

Her mother had been absolutely estatic when she'd come down for breakfast, almost dropping the plates as she'd rushed to embrace her daughter. Reborn actually had to take the plates away from the woman before they'd crashed to the floor.

Unfortunately, Nana wasn't able to stay for that long as the bakery needed her, and with the fact that Tsuna now looked a lot better than she'd done when she'd returned home the day before, Nana felt a lot better leaving the house, especially since Reborn happened to have a day off on Fridays and was able to stay home with her daughter just in case the girl somehow relapsed during the day.

It had been Reborn's idea to turn on the news as Tsuna ate.

She didn't know if he'd somehow predicted it, but almost the second he'd turned on the TV, the acerman changed to a different topic.

"On another note, yesterday afternoon, it would appear that an alleyway in the northern districts of Namimori mysteriously caught fire." Tsuna felt herself go pale at the words. "The investigators have as of yet been unable to determine the source or place of origin of the fire, but the strange thing about this particular fire was that it wouldn't go out." Tsuna shot out of her seat, staring wide-eyed at the screen. "The Automatic Environment Safety Department tried every fire-stifling tecnique they had on hand but nothing seemed to work, so in the end, they simply roped off the area and allowed the flames to burn until they extinguished themselves." Tsuna could feel the tingling returning to her fingers but she quickly snuffed them out. "Thankfully, no injuries has been reported." Well, at least there was that.

Before the acerman could continue, Reborn turned the TV off, making her turn towards him, seeing him looking at her with an expectant expression.

"They won't go out?" she found herself asking.

"No." he answered her easily. "As the Raw Anima isn't created through normal means, it can not be put out through normal means either." He gestured towards the screen. "The most the regular people can do to get rid of these flames is to simply let them eat, but depending on where the fires break out, that cannot always be the wise choice." He pushed her back down onto her chair. "I showed you this so that you would know, once you've learned to controll your flames, to not use them rashly even when no one is arround."

Tsuna nodded in understanding.

Out of controll flames that could not be put out through regular means…

She didn't need to have any accessive immagination to know that that was not good.

* * *

After breakfast, the stundent and teacher settled down inside of her bedroom, Tsuna fiddling with her fingers as she anxiously waited for the man to start his instructing.

She watched in confusion as the man threw a large pillow to the floor before he turned towards her.

"First things first." He stated, adjusting the blazer even though it didn't even look wrinkled after Tsuna had worn it the day before. "There are four emotions that you need to keep track on from now on." He started counting them up on his fingers, standing in front of Tsuna where she was sitting on the bed. "Determination, Stress, Anger, and Fear."

With a deep breath, Tsuna nodded in understanding.

"These fuel Anima?" she tried the word out on her tungue, finging it very odd indeed but there was little she could do about that.

"They do." Reborn answered. "In one way or another, every emotion does really, but these four have a much higher risk of functioning as a trigger to unleash Raw Anima."

Tsuna couldn't help but to recall the day before, when she was still cowering against the wall in the alley, the words he had spoken to her back then in one of his multiple attempts at calming her down.

She leaned forward, hands brazed on the matress.

"You mentioned that fear was like trying to put out fire with gasoline." She mentioned, not looking at the man as everything he'd said back then rushed back to the forefront of her mind, words that she now made sure to file away where they belonged.

"Exactly." Reborn nodded, making her turn back towards him. "Fear is, esentially, the overwhelming desire to save your own or another persons life or anything else that you might feel is threatened, only you have no idea how to achiece this." Tsuna found herself listening intently, hanging onto every word that rolled off of his tungue. "Anger, is a violent outburst of a certain desire that has been building up until it explodes like igniting gas." Tsuna could only imagine what that might be like if she ever got angry, not that she could recall a time in which that actually happened. "Stress is a frantic desire prickling under your skin, it can either just be a sparkler or the fuse to a bomb depending on the origin and nature of the stress." Tsuna had to do a double-take at the descriptions, whilst they were helpful, she had no idea where he had gotten those kind of metaphors from. "Now Determination." Her focus returned. "Determination is the basic fuel to Anima, the most stable form, like a candle." Reborn's gaze hardened. "But even that can get out of hand if you're not careful."

Tsuna nodded, mind realing as it tried to sort through the information she'd just been given, her hands landing on her lap where her fingers began fiddling.

"So basically… I need to keep constant control of my emotions." She mumbled, trying to prepare herself for the ammount of work that would entail.

"At the moment, yes." At the moment… those words made Tsuna frown.

He had spoken as though emotions were the key point in controlling this power, and now he said that she only had to controll her emotions "at the moment"?

Seeing her mental dilema, Reborn put his hand on her shoulder.

"Once you've got control over your core, the rist of the flames getting the better of you will lessen considderably." He explained.

Tsuna frowned.

"Core?"

"Yes." Reborn stepped away from Tsuna, beginning to walk around the room with an air of exhasperated annoyance. "Most Anima masters will tell you that the proper way of controlling the power is to simply controll your emotions." He stopped suddenly, snapping his index-finger in her directions. "Don't listen to those morons." Had Tsuna been any other girl, she probably would have laughed at his words, but the seriousness he was radiating stopped her. "If they were to even, for a split second, loose that controll of their emotions, their powers will go haywire." He stopped in front of her. "Their method keeps the energy bottled up inside of them like a dam, only said dam is very weak and just the smallest pebble would be able to send the whole thing toppling down, and such a method is a death sentense when it comes of the Phoenix." He started walking again, Tsuna's eyes trailing after him with every step he took.

So, it was a power who's control technique could vary, but according to the man, the most common technique was the wrong technique.

This is already starting to become confusing.

Suddenly, the man stopped again, the finger once again pointed in her direction but with a more lenient attitude to it, not an accusing one this time around.

"What you need to do, is to look inside to find the very spot in your body from which the energy originates." He turned his finger towards his chest. "You controll that spot, you controll the energy without having to keep contstant track of your emotions, you decide when the core is active and when it is not, you don't walk around with flames brewing underneath your skin at every waking moment, you're safe." He let his hand fall to his side, looking down at her. "That is what we're going to do."

Without her actually realizing it, Tsuna nodded.

Between the two techniques she'd just been precented with, the one that Reborn wanted to teach her did indeed sound like the safer option.

Of course, he could just be suggar-coating it, making it sound like the superior method, but she got no such vibes from him, he truly felt that that was the best way to do it, and if this man felt that it was the method best for her, than she would have to trust him.

"Okay…" she breathed, rising up from the bed. "Where do I start?"

Reborn stepped up to her, putting a hand between her shoulder-blades as he led her towards the pillow he'd thrown down, pusing her down so that she was sitting on it.

"You need to find the spot." He said, stepping away from her so that he had a good look at the entierty of her. "And the best way to do that, is to meditate." She seriously fought against giving him an exhasperated look at this point.

Meditation?

Really?

Yes, she knows that it actually has proven to be really effective in the control of ones emotions, but still. All this talk and the first thing he wants her to do is meditate to find a spot inside of her that pumped out flames?

Did he even realize how crazy that sounded?

As if knowing where her thoughts were heading, Reborn spoke up from where he saw currently stranding behind her.

"I'm going to need you to do exactly as I tell you Tsunako."

Do exactly as he told her.

He wanted her to give up her own thoughts were his orders were concerned and simply follow. She'd done that once, followed everything everyone told her in a desperate attempt to get someone, anyone, to like her, to want to be friends with her.

The only thing she'd gotten were jeers that she was basically everyones slave, that they didn't have to care for her as she would do what they told her to anyway.

It didn't take long for her to realize what was going on, and when that happened, she'd sworn to herself one thing, one tiny little thing.

"If you tell me why I should do each step, then we'll have no problems." She told the man, mentally remimding herself that she always, always, would have the right to ask the simple question:

Why?

She heard the man chuckle behind her, and immediately, her thoughts snapped into defense mode, if he was chuckling because he believed he could somehow work that thought out of her then he had another thing coming.

Tsuna was more than happy to admit to herself that she was stubborn.

Thank you Mother.

Thankfully, that was not what Reborn was chuckling about at all.

"That's a good mindset." He remarked, voice ringing clear of any double meaning, allowing Tsuna to relax. For now, she was in good enough hands. "Now relax." The teacher continued. "This process might take a couple of days, but I promise you that the results will be more than worth it."

* * *

 **A/N: Oh! I'm so happy with this!**

 **Please tell me what you think, ask me questions, anything that might have been brewing in your mind as you were reading (asside from the grammar and spelling errors, I'll deal with those after the whole fick is done, don't want to read through the chapter before posting it or else it will never be uploaded with everything I might want to add or change). Every review you give me is keeping me writing.**

 **I still need help with the creation of the Italian lullaby, so if anyone want to help me, please PM me and you'll get access to info that other people will not know until Act 3-4 somewhere.**

 **Bribery… I did not know I was capable of that.**

 **This has been.**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	9. Scene 9: Self Convincing

**A/N: This chapter took a lot longer to finish than what I had originally thought it would. I'm blaming Youtube, some videos are not supposed to be watched while writing no matter how good at multi-tasking you are.**

 **Well, I have actually caught onto a bug that with the last… three? Chapters, no notifications about updates has been sent out, or at least, none have been sent to me which has always happened, which bugs me out, not quite as much as those two times When I was not allowed to read my own revews (which was TORTURE) but it's still bugging as I know that there are people out there that really like this story and the thought of them not getting the notifications that there are updates…**

 **Well, it's not fun.**

 **I'm not really sure how some parts of this chapter turned out (I blave YOU Youtube), but I am particularly fond of the ending. Particularly because of a certain something, something that's happening.**

 **He he he he.**

 **Well, I suppose I'll leave you to it.**

* * *

 **Scene 9:**

 **Self Convincing**

 ** _May 23_**

 ** _Saturday 2215_**

Turns out, trying to find an invisible spot inside of you turned out to be a much more difficult task than Tsuna had initially thought it to be.

The first day had been spent in instructing Tsuna how to properly relax herself whilst still sitting up, establishing which position felt the best for her and how to breathe in the proper manner to ensure that she was relaxed inside and out.

Now, she was sitting on the pillow, trying to follow the teachers latest instruction.

"I thought I told you to clear your mind." Reborn muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose from where he was leaning against the wall, watching over his students progress, or lack there of as currently was the case.

Tsuna couldn't keep herself from groaning as she opened her eyes.

"That's easy for you to say." She mumbled, bringing up a hand to rub her eyes.

All of this heavy breathing with her eyes closed were only serving to make her tired. Maybe she should try doing this the next time she was having a considderably harder time than normal to fall asleep or something, because obviously, it wasn't helping her in whatever technique the teacher wanted her to learn.

"It is." The teacher pushed himself off of the wall and walking up to her. "I thought you'd be more than accustomed to clearing your head by now, after everything you've been through." He adjusted the white cuffs hiding beneath the blazer sleeves for a moment.

Tsuna had to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

"I'm used to diverting my thoughts, not clearing them." She shot back, adjusting herself on top of the pillow.

"Then." Reborn paused, crouching down in front of her with a thoughtful look in his eyes. "What do you think about when you pain?"

This threw Tsuna off for a moment.

What did she think about when she was painting?

What kind of question was that? It completely depended on what she was painting, weather the subject was already decided by someone else or herself ahead of time or if she was painting just because she… felt… like it…

"Nothing…" the answer slipped out of her before she honestly had the time to fully comprehend what was happening.

Reborn nodded at her answer.

"Then try this." He said, picking up her hands from where they had been folded in her lap, holding her wrists in between them. "Put yourself in the mindset you're in before you begin a painting." Tsuna's fingers curled in towards her palms.

The man was surprisingly adamant about almost always keeping at least one hand on her when explaining something, probably as a means of ensuring that he had her attention, but she was still Japanese and she was still very much not used to physical contact at all, so each time he touched her, it was very much uncomfortable and sometimes even boarderline painful depending on how long he allowed the touch to linger.

Either way, Tsuna let her eyes fall shut.

"Visualize yourself sitting in front of a clear canvas." Reborn's voice boomed all around her, his presense strangely pulsating in front of her even though all she could see was a dark red from the light in her room filtering in through her eyelids. "Imagine that you have a brush in your hand and you're preparing yourself to begin on yet another one of your masterpieces."

Masterpieces?

Whilst she was confident enough in her artistic skills, she would never have thought to call them masterpieces. It was a coping mecanism for purity's sake.

Never the less, Tsuna allowed herself to go along with Reborn's description.

She'd never really broken down her painting process before and it was a strange kind of out-of-body experience for her to register each step as they came to her, especially when her body seemed to instantly reacted to the clearing of her mind with the raising of her hand in the reflexive action of her body associating not thinking with painting.

Of course, with her wrists still locked in Reborn's grip, her body couldn't move on instinct and thus she was kind of, knocked into a state that was very much, unfamillar to her.

She felt kind of… floaty, surrounded by the steady pounding of what could only be a heartbeat, it echoed through her entire being.

It was so strange.

"There we go…" Reborn's voice filtered in through her hazy perception of reality. "Now, you'll have to find two things." Tsuna could feel a flash of confusion hit her before the man continued talking. "The first thing is the feel of the physical pounding, that being your heart." Surpise surprise, it didn't take long for Tsuna to locate that pounding, and being fully concious of every single beat of your heart is a strange thing indeed. "Have you found it?" his voice spoke up again, focing her boy into a reflexive nod. "Good, I asked you to find it so that you wouldn't be confused at the other thing, which is a pulsating that should more or less be on time with the heart, but it doesn't physically pound, but pulsate heat." Okay… that was something that was different.

For what felt like a longer moment, Tsuna plowed through the haze that she nowed understood to be her perception of her inner workings or something along those lines, she didn't really want to think about that all too much.

It was much harder to locate a silent pulsing when the sound of her heartbeat was still vibrating through her. Finally though, she felt something subtle, something that she probably would have brushed off as the temperature fluctuaring had she not been told to look for that exact thing. Only it was weak, very weak.

"Can you feel it?" Reborn's voice sounded, almost making her jump.

Tsuna swallowed, trying to zero in on that slow pulsing sensation.

"I feel… something…" she answered slowly, eyes squeezing together as she tried to locate the source of the pulsing inside of her, pushing through the haze as though weaving through a field of two-meter tall seaweed.

"Do you think you can grasp it?" the man asked, voice barely making it through the current mental state she was in.

She tried.

She really tried.

She didn't know just how long she tried to follow that strange pulsing sensation, but the more she tried, the more it felt like she was moving further away from where it actually was located, only serving to make her annoyed.

"No." she finally stated, pulling herself out of the daze as she removed her hands from the mands grasp, letting out a deep sigh as she rubbed her wrists. "It's too weak."

Sighing, Reborn nodded at her answer.

"I was afraid of this." He mumbled, rising from the floor. "I'm calling it a day."

Tsuna's head snapped up to look at the man, eyes wide.

"What?" she expressed. "Why?"

For a terrifying moment, Tsuna wondered if she'd somehow done something wrong and that was why he was calling it a day when she'd only been on this internal search for…

Tsuna glanced towards the clock on the wall, and if her eyes could widen any more than they aready were, they just did.

Four hours?

She'd been meditating for four hours?

She felt as though it's only been like twenty minutes, how has it been four hours?

The sound of Reborn talking again brought her out of her moment of shock at the immense lapse in her perseption of time to once again pay attention to what he was saying.

"If it's too weak for you to grasp, then the core isn't open enough for you to register it's presense." The man explained, reaching down a hand to pull Tsuna up to her feet as to not have to look down at her and spare her the neck pains. "Forcing you to try and search for something that's not large enough to be properly located will just waste both of our times don't you think?"

Tsuna nodded slowly, letting out a long sigh as she glanced away from the man.

She knew he was talking sense, but she couldn't help herself.

She needed to learn controll over this power, an almost desperate desire spawning from her fear of what it could do to everything around her.

In a short moment of childish imatience, Tsuna bounced of her toes.

"Then what do we do?" she asked, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

"I'll have to find a safe enough way to coax the seal open just a bit further." At the brief look of fear that passed over Tsuna's face, Reborn kept talking. "Don't worry." He said calmly. "So long as we keep you under observation for a few days and you don't loose control of your emotions for that brief period of time, it will be alright."

Tsuna nodded slowly at his reasoning.

"Then what do I do for now?" she asked, moving towards the bed to collapse onto the blankets, feeling surprisingly exhausted for having just sat and done nothing for four hours straight.

"Prepare yourself." Came the man's answer.

"For what?" Tsyna asked with a breath, wanting nothing more than to allow her entire being to sink into her matress and remain there for a good amount of time.

Sighing, Reborn settled down next to her on the bed, rolling his eyes as he kept his back firmly turned to the girl.

"You do realize that you need to go to school on Monday, don't you?" she stiffened at the mere thought, and the man didn't even need to look at her to know just how she'd reacted to what he'd said. He sighed again, leaning his arms on his legs. "Tsunako, I have a job there you know."

"A job teaching a course with no students." Tsunako retorted into her pillow.

She got the sense that the teacher was forcing himself to remain serious even though she got the sense of amusement when he started talking again.

"Don't take that tone with me." He ordered, taking on a tone like a father scolding his child, though she had to keep herself from sucumbing to the humor of the moment. Thankfully, it didn't take long for Reborn to truly return to his serious demeanor. "It's not my fault I actually have to keep up the appearance of giving students an etrance test."

This brought a frown to Tsuna's face.

"Yeah…" she muttered, slowly rising up from the matress to look at the back of her teachers head with narrowed eyes. "What do you do during those tests?"

"That's a conversation for another day." Reborn answered quickly.

Really?

He'd been pretty much answering her every question and _now_ he decides to stop answering her? Just what was he thinking?

"But-" she started but she didn't get any further.

"No." Reborn cut her off, finally actually turning around to look at her. At seeing the annoyance on her face, he held up a finger between them. "I promise that I will not withold anything from you." He stated, looking her right in the eyes. "But telling you everything at the same time is not good for you in your current state." He moved his eyes to her hands, where a persistent tremmor still existed even though she'd mostly recovered the original state of her nerves under his instruction. He looked back into her eyes. "I will tell you the second the situation call for it, alright?"

Sighing in exhasperation, Tsuna let herself fall onto her back.

"I'll hold you to that." She mumbled in exhaustion.

"I don't doubt you will." Reborn answered with a chuckle as he raised himself up from the girl's bed.

He had been about to leave the room when his student spoke up again.

"Reborn." She called, making him pause. "Will I be alright, going back to school?" her voice was barely more than a whisper, the tremmor in her fingers more visible than before.

"Do you think you can calm yourself down in came something were to happen?" the teacher asked her right back.

For a long moment, Tsuna just laid there, thinking over his question before she brought her trembling hand up to hover in front of her face.

"I…" she mumbled, taking a deep breath. "I think so…" she answered, face contorted in uncertainty. "I'm not entierly sure…"

Reborn nodded at her answer.

"Well," he breathed, making the girl look at him as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "We'll just have to ensure that we've boosted your confidence before Monday then, don't we?" the smirk that spread across his lips at his words made Tsuna wonder weather or not she had made the right choice in agreeing to his tutolage after all.

* * *

 ** _May 25_**

 ** _Monday 2215_**

She hadn't gotten any sleep that night.

Alright, that would be a lie, she had gotten a few hours of rest when her exhaustion got the better of her, but she didn't feel like she had. Cold sweat acumilating on her skin, causing shivers to add onto her already growing list of things wrong with her that morning.

She was sitting at the breakfast table, fork clutched tightly in her trembling hand as she poked around at the food on her plate, her appetite having long since left her even before she'd gone to bed the previous night.

She felt empy, her stomach aching, and yet she couldn't bring herself to eat.

Reborn had been watching his student for a good five minutes, and her hunched over, pale-faced state was starting to make even him nervous.

"Tsunako." He said as calmly as he could so as to not strartle the girl, he barely got any acnowledgement that she'd even heard him, asside from a momentary pause in the movement of her hand. "You need to eat."

Tsuna's answer came in an almost robotic nodd.

"I know…" she answered slowly, not capable of speaking any louder than a whisper in her trembling state. She took a deep breath as she slowly, deliberately, pressed her fork into a piece of sausage. "I just… don't think I'll be able to hold anything down today."

Rolling his eyes, Reborn reached out a hand to gently grab the girl's wrist before she once again stabbed the ceramic, thus creating the most annoying sound that cut at your ears.

Funny how it seemed like she wasn't at all effected.

"Remember what we practiced yesterday." He told her, forcing her to keep her eyes locked his his, hopefully to help her keep her mind momentarily focused on something that wasn't whatever it was that was percistently swarming inside of her mind.

"I know…" Tsuna replied with a swallow, taking a deep breath before she continued. "But it doesn't really make it any easier at the moment." She pulled her wrist from the teachers hand, once again returning to mutliating the sausages on her plate, not even a crumb coming even close to entering her mouth.

Nana had been watching her daughter as well, her thumb-nail almost welded in between her two rows of teeth at the moment before she finally snapped, letting her hand drop before she walked up behind Tsuna's chair, gently placing a hand on the girl's trembling soulder.

"Tsuna-chan…" the woman spoke as softly as she could as she sat down in the chair next to the girl she'd helped creating, still keeping her hand on the girl in what she hoped to be a comforting manner. "You absolutely sure you're ready to go back to school?" she asked, voiced filled with concern. "It'll be perfectly alright if you say home for a few more days after what you've been through."

Truthfully, Nana would have liked to bring Tsuna back to the hospital just to be sure the stitches hadn't ripped, but Tsuna had fiercely ensured her that the bio-fabric had kept the wound from taking too much damage and it was pretty much all healed anyway.

They were just waiting for the visit to have the stitches removed now.

Tsuna glanced at Reborn, knowing perfectly well of what her mother knew of what she'd been through, her hand hovering over a part on her wrist where the bruise had long since faded thanks to the salve.

She didn't know how many times she'd given that particular invention a solid thanks.

"Mom…" Tsuna breathed, not looking at the woman. "If I don't take the step now… when will I take it?" she asked, glancing at her mother at the edge of her vision.

Nana paused, not sure weather or not she should speak before she couldn't keep herself from the comment any longer.

"When I force you too." She stated.

Momentarily thrown off, Tsuna turned fully to her moment before she actually thought about her mother's words and nodded to what she'd said.

"True." She answered.

Reborn glanced between the two women in obvious amusement.

"Tsuna-chan, look at me." Nana said, turning her daughter fully towards her and grabbed hold of her hands, removing the fork and putting it on the plate before she started talking again, taking on a much more serious air. "You are a beautiful young woman."

Tsuna felt the color flush to her face at her mothers words.

"Mom-" she didn't get to keep talking.

"No." The woman cut her off, her grip tightening around her daughter's hands. "You're my daughter, and because you're my daughter, you are gorgeous." She said this as though it was the most obvious thing on the planet, though it was very much laced with humour so Tsuna didn't have to worry for her mothers vanity. "Just because the rest of the world is blind doesn't mean it's not true." The woman brought out a hand to brush her daughters messy hair from her eyes, showing off more of that face she'd just complimented like only a mother could.

"You've told me this already." Tsuna said, waving off her mother's hand.

"And I'll say it again if I feel you need it." The woman argued right back, making Tsuna narrow her eyes slightly.

"And I need it now?" she asked.

Confusion only grew when a smirk slowly spread across her mothers face.

"You stopped shaking didn't you?"

And sure enough, the tremmors that had been going through the young girl's body. They were still very much precent in her hands but one couldn't have everything.

Reborn looked at the woman in interest.

The two women might not be as close as they might have wanted themselves to be, but Nana still understood Tsuna enough to difuse her tense nerves with just a few sentenses.

He'd have to recall that she was weak to embarrassment for later.

Nana was, however, not done talking.

"And we really need to do something about this hair so that others can say the same." She took one lock of the mess between her thumb and index finger, still looking right into her daughters eyes. "It's about time that you go and get yourself a few boyfriends."

Tsuna's eyes widened in shock.

"Boyfriends?!" she almost shrieked. "As in plural?!"

"Of course!" Nana exclaimed right back, releasing the lock of hair. "Your looks are too good to waste on one man." She paused for a moment, obviously realizing what that sounded like and quickly elabourated. "Of course, I don't mean at the same time."

"Oh thank the stars." Tsuna breathed, face now almost glowing red from her mother's attention.

Reborn wiped the amusement from his face, finally deciding to take mercy on his student and save her from her embarrassment.

"Tsunako." He spoke up, making both of the women turn to him. He jerked his head towards the clock on the wall. "If you don't hurry up, you're going to be late."

For a moment, Tsuna could feel the tingling start up in her fingertips.

"I'll arrive there myself in about an hour." He added, serving to at least calm her momentarily.

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay…" Tsuna mumbled, getting off of her chair as she picked up her bag from the floor and moved towards the door. "I'll be off then."

For a moment, Nana remained seated.

Then, hurrying after her daughter, she managed to get into the hall just as the girl had opened the front door.

"Be safe sweetheart." Nana's words sounded almost like a prayer as she looked at her precious little girl, the girl whom had actually paused in the door before the woman even opened her mouth.

"I'll try." She breathed before she closed the door behind her, pausing on the front porch before she allowed herself to take the first step on the road.

* * *

From the window, Reborn had pushed asside the light green curtain to watch his student as she took one cautious step after the other, taking almost a minute before she finally faded away from his line of sight at the window where he'd taken in each tremmor running through the girl's body as she'd walked.

Sighing, he allowed the curtain to fall back, returning his attention to his other hand that had been holding onto his cup of expresso. He ran his thumbs over the porcelain.

He really would be there in about an hour, but who was to say what would happen to her on the way to school?

Perhaps he should have gone with her?

No. She'd insisted on taking the walk on her own.

That stubborn girl.

He sighed again, bringing the cup to his lips as he prayed to the ancient ones that she'd at least make it safely to the gate-posts of the school grounds without disolving into a fit of panic.

Or worse.

* * *

Tsuna's steps were heavy as she silently made her was through the streets of the small town, slowly moving down the familiar path towards the school grounds whilst feeling something like a condemned prisoner from historical movies being lead to the gallows.

It was almost like her body was subconsioucly trying to force her to skip going to the building entierly, having somehow adopted the mindset that if she walked slowly enough she wouldn't have to go at all, but that idea was being furiously fought with her down right refusal to be late spawning from preservation instincts that ran through the entire student body of Namimori high, just like they had in Namimori middle.

If she was late, then she would end up on the bad side of the head prefect, and she really didn't need that adding onto the weight on her frayed nerves on her first day was in the classroom.

It didn't matter how at ease she felt around the prefect, she did not want to test her almost non-existent luck with him.

She clutched tightly at the straps of her bag, eyes snapping around every corner she passed for potential threats before she forced herself to keep going, the feel of people's eyes following her, their pressense hovering around her weighing her down more than she would honestly like to admit.

Just walking to school was prooving to be a surprisingly stressful experience.

Even more than it had been before which really was saying something.

Finally, after what felt like forever, she reached the school gates, at which point her feet locked onto the ground, her legs refusing to take one more step.

She was scared, that much was a given, and it was causing her fingertips to tingle.

Closing her eyes, Tsuna allowed her senses to open to the world around her as she searched for that familiar gnawing sensation that she'd some to understand indicated something that was going to happen, the nature and location of the gnawing usually telling her weather or not that event would be something she should dread or look foreward to.

She honestly didn't know why she got these sensations, but now that this had happened to her, she couldn't help but to appretiate they're existance.

More importantly, she was looking for that sensation of potential threat hanging over her head.

It took a moment, but she finally got what she needed.

She did feel something.

A light gnawing at the back of her neck, but it wasn't bad.

So something was going to happen, most likely today, but thankfully, for the sake of her nerves, the event wasn't going to be bad.

Letting out a deep breath, Tsuna opened her eyes, allowing herself to actually look at the building as she adjusted the straps on her bag and prepared to walk through the gate posts and join the crowd of students milling in all around her.

She was stopped, when the air shifted.

Something black zoomed past her, throwing her messy hair and skirt into a wirlwind that momentarily blinded her and probably wound have caused her to accidentally flash everyone around had her blazer's length not kept the skirt from showing anything higher than just higher than her mid-thigh. Whomever that was riding the thing would have run straight into her had she moved just one foot to the left.

Now she understood why people had put up such a violent fight against the silent motors when they had first arrived around 50 years ago.

It was a hoverbike.

A sleek black contraption built for speed and durability with painted flames at the front and rear, details that was only visible after it had reached a dangerous topple-risky halt among the other bikes when the driver veered the vehivle into a sharp turn that would have probably left marks on the asphalt had the thing actually had tires. The driver turned off the motor mit-turn, expertly manouvered themselves in order to keep both themselves and the bike upright at it lowered to the ground among the other bikes.

It was a wonder that they hadn't crashed right into them when they'd arrived.

Tsuna wasn't the only one that had paused upon the riders arrival, having caught the attention of pretty much everyone around them the second they'd passed through the gates.

On closer inspection, Tsuna could tell that the driver was a young, lean man. Of course, women could be lean too but the drivers built was deffinately that of the male gender, Tsuna should know these things. Dressed in black slacks with the occational rip, and a white dress-shirt that was only partially visible from under the dark-red hoodie the guy wore in stead of a blazer to keep himself protected from the air hitting him as he drove.

Tsuna (and basically everyone else) watched as the guy yanked off his fingerless biker-gloves, Tsuna unable to keep herself from noticing just how long and slender those fingers were, before he moved to remove his helmet.

Tsuna didn't know why, but she found herself holding her breath in anticipable, not capable of basic human function as she waited for the sleek black piece of head-protection to be removed.

And she didn't have to wait long.

Silver.

Mid-neck long locks of silver hair tumbled out of the black almost-sphere, settling down around the drivers head as he gave it a short shake. For a moment, Tsuna was overcome with the strangest of sensations, a sensation that she couldn't, for the life of her, describe or even distinguish it's meaning, frustrating her somewhat but she knew that the feeling involved that young man who's back was still turned towards her.

She did know that it had nothing to do with the high-pitch squeals the now echoed through the school grounds.

She watched, transfixed as the guy ran his long fingers through his hair, almost making her jealous at just how silky and easily manageable it looked to the touch. The quickly adjusted the placement of the silvery strands before, finally, he turned towards her direction, and Tsuna immediately found herself locked in place.

She didn't think she'd ever seen a more gorgeous shade of olive-green in her life.

She now understood perfectly why the squeals still sounded all around her, occationally accompanied by the jealous groan of annoyance at said reaction.

Everything about this guy's appearance lookes as though it had been sculpted by a professional artist with the mindset to create the personification of the term "take a picture, it'll last longer". A prominent jawline attatched to a surprisingly slender neck, visible cheekbones, a lightly upturned nose below a pair of perfectly arched eyebrows stretching over the naturally narrowed eyes that owned that beautiful olive-green color.

His skin looked to be flawless alabaster pale.

He was handsome.

Very handsome.

The kind of handsome that Tsuna found she would very much like to paint some day.

Sure, there were plenty of other people who were handsome too, but there were many different kind of it, and in Tsuna's own personal oppinion, there was no such thing as an ugly person in existance. At the very least, she had yet to meat someone who's appearance she found truly revolting.

Yamamoto, according to Tsuna, would be the perfect example of rugged handsomeness that only manage to grow after a training session.

But this guy… the guy on the motorbike… the one staring at Tsuna with the weirdest look on his face. He was handsome in an eleganst manner, no… aristocratic, that's the word.

No matter how much of a delinquent his stille or even his very entrance and choice of accessoried made him look, Tsuna could see beyond that, probably more than her still squealing school-mates bothered to look where a pretty face was concerned.

She found herself pitying the guy.

When she looked at him, she got this image of a rich man's son who for some reason began to hate the lifestyle he'd been raised in and ran away, turning himself into the guy in front of her at the very moment.

Once again, she'd really, really, like to paint him one day.

Even though she seriosuly doubted that would ever happen.

She probably could have stood there staring at the guy for the whole day without knowing it had the sound of the school bell ringing through the air not knocked her out of the trance he had somehow put her in.

Shaking her head, Tsuna awkwardly scurried off towards the main entrance of the school, desperately trying to ignore the deep of those beautiful olive-green eyes following her as she went.

* * *

 **A/N: Isn't it funny how I'm at chapter 10 now and I haven't even touched up on chapter 5 in the original story's content? It just feels that much more fleshed out this time around and I'm really liking it so far.**

 **I'm sounding like the majority of my own reviews.**

 **Speaking of which, please tell me what you think, don'y just leave one word responses or even smiley faces because that doesn't tell me anything and you just sound bored, which is never a good thing. I want feedback, and not on the spelling because I'll deal with that after the fic is done with the mindset that if I were to go back right now and look through my entire chapter for each and every spelling misstake, I would tire myself out of continuing to write and updates would most likely never happen, so if you're willing to put up with the spelling errors for now, what would be great (do not read with a sarcastic tone because I really am serious, and tired of all those comments).**

 **With the introduction of… that guy (he he he), I'm getting closer to that one particular moment that I am really, REALLY, looking foreward to making into my own personal cannon (internal squeeing!)**

 **Anyway. Again, please leave your thoughts and I'll be back whenever.**

 **Seriously, review, one of you people may accidentally cause me to start writing again just as I have switched interests, it's happened before.**

 **This story's continuation lies in your hands (more or less).**

 **This has been.**

 **A message, from her Ladyship.**


	10. Scene 10: Olive Eyes

**A/N: Oh my god, I have been away from this thing for so, so long.**

 **I have tried to continue writing this for so long, I have actually actively tried to write this chapter for I don't know how long, it has been irritating me forever but now I have finally managed to bring myself to actually finish this thing!**

 **Now, I do hope that people will not be expecting regular updates became Humans, for the first time in my life, I actually have a paying job that is not wandering my neighborhood delivering junkmail. I earn more in a day than I do in a month with the junkmail now as a casheer at the convenience store my dad's worked in for almost twenty years.**

 **Well anyway, I really hope that you people like this, I'm looking forward to writing things that progress from this point on and I hope that you are as exited for the future as I am.**

* * *

 **Scene 10:**

 **Olive eyes**

Never before had the simple act of walking through the school corridors been as nerve wracking as it was at this very moment. The sounds of the students chatter almost deafening her as she went.

She ensured that she didn't meet the eyes of anyone, even though she knew that she was a rather recognizeable person in the school, but she hoped, hoped to everything pure on the earth that Mochida and his crew wasn't present at the school and thus wouldn't hear anything where she was concerned, or even see her.

She didn't think she'd be able to handle it if they did.

Keeping her head low, she weaved herself through the sea of students, expertly avoiding having to actually touch any of them and allert them of her presense. She didn't want any attention drawn towards her, not now… not yet.

She reached her homeroom door way too fast for her liking.

For a long moment, she just stood there, staring at the slab of wood and breathing deeply, desperately trying to gather up the courage to actually open it.

Turns out, she didn't actually have to do it.

"You're in the way."

The voice was a deep tenor, slightly gravelly, successfully knocking her out of her train of thought. She probably would have jumped out of her skin had Reborn's training not proven to be surprisingly functional in keeping her nerves in check.

Spinning around with speed only a balett dancer can accomplish, Tsuna faced the man that had snuck up on her.

There he was, the silver haired hover-bike driver, standing at about half a head taller than her, his gorgeous eyes piercing down on her, once again locking her in place, unable to find her words. His brow was furrowed in annoyance as he seemed to be observing her like she was observing him.

Only he wasn't entierly pleased with what he was seeing.

It took some time before his words actually sunk in, and when they did, heat rushed to her face.

Not energy heat, just blood.

"Sorry." She almost squeaked, stepping away from the door, allowing the young man the passage he wanted.

In doing so, she immediately caught the attention of everyone in the classroom, and the second, the second the silver-haired man stepped into the doorway, the room broke out in the most obnoxious of noises the human being can produce.

Squeeing.

"Oh stars, oh stars, it's him!"

"He's back!"

"Oh my deer, look at that shirt!"

"He's even hotter than I remember!"

"Pinch me, I'm dreaming."

Tsuna flinched at the shrill noice that she couldn't hardly believe was coming from the throat of someone of her own gender. And she didn't have to actually look at the young man to know that he had just as big an issue on the sound as she did, if not even more as he was actually responsible for the sounds.

Growling, the young man stepped into the classroom, hands obviously (to her) clenched in his pockets as he wove through the small crowd of students that parted for him as he approached a previously empty desk at the back of the classroom, casually plomping down in the seat, throwing his legs up on top and allowing his arm to hang over the back of the chair, the frown still present as he glared at the eyes firmly pinned on him.

With almost all eyes trained on the new guy, Yamamoto rose from his seat, walking unnoticed over to the girl still standing in the doorway.

"Sawada."

Yamamoto frowned when Tsuna almost jumped out of her skin at just the mention of her name. She calmed down considderably when she saw that it was him, but the prospect of her being that frightened of him was very worrying for the athlete.

Gently taking her wrist, he pulled the surprisingly stiff girl into the classroom, leading her away from the door.

Finally, he brought the two of them to a stop.

"I was waiting for you last Friday." He told her, eyes filled with worry.

Tsuna's shoulders drew together, her eyes almost gravitating to the floor, refusing to look at him.

"I'm sorry." She muttered under her breath.

"What happened?" the athlete asked, gently putting his hand on her trembling shoulder.

Still not looking at him, Tsuna pushed his hand away from her, she didn't need to look at his face to know her action had hurt him.

"I don't reall want to talk about it." She mumbled, swallowing audiably before she stepped around the athlete, moving towards her desk.

"Wait." Yamamoto almost pleaded, spinning around to grab her by the arm. "Sawada, what happened?"

She could hear the desperation starting to form in his voice, but Tsuna couldn't bring herself to endulge the guy.

"Please don't touch me." She asked, voice barely more than a whisper, but the message more than hit home at the increase of the tremmors in Tsuna's arm.

"I'm sorry." Yamamoto relented, releasing her arm, but that didn't mean that he was going to let the subject go. He followed her as she made her way towards her desk. "But Sawada-" of course she didn't allow him to finish his sentence.

"Who is he?" Tsuna cut in as she sat down at her desk.

For a brief moment, Yamamoto didn't understand what she meant, then it hit him.

"Our new classmate." He answered, sitting down in the chair opposite Tsuna's desk so that he would be allowed to look her in the face. "He came for a tour and introduction last Friday." Saying this, he threw a glance up over Tsuna's head at the transfer student in question, looking up just in time to see the guy staring directly at the back of Tsuna's head.

Briefly shocked, Yamamoto looked right back to Tsuna, prepared to tell her what he'd just discovered, but stopped short at what he saw.

She knew the guy was looking at her. There was no other way to describe her narrowed glance to the corner of her eye, in the direction of the transfer student.

She wasn't facing him, but she could feel him looking at her.

"Interesting…" he heard her mutter.

"What is?"

His voice seemed to snap her out of whatever thought she'd been drowning in, snapping her attention back to him. She met his eyes for a couple of seconds before shaking her head.

"Oh nothing." She brushed him off, pupils returning to the corner of her eyes, refusing to turn her head to actually look at the man. "Where's he from?"

This did bring a small smile to Yamamoto's lips.

"You noticed that huh?"

The look she gave him at his comment almost made the athlete burst out laughing.

It was a look that spoke so plainly "don't sound so surprised".

He was about to answer her, but someone else did it before he could.

"His name, is Gokudera Hayato." Sasagawa Kyoko's gentle voice spoke up from their side, it was quite sudden, making the two of them jump in their seats before turning around towards her. "He's originally from Italy." The girl continued, then, the reactions they had to her sudden appearance registered. "Sorry."

Sasagawa Kyoko was the idol of the school, with her lightly naturally curved body, modest chest, normal height, heart-shaped face, almond-shaped amber eyes with long ginger hair that she usually came to school with it in elabourate updoos decorated with flowers or pearls to make it look all the more adorable.

Outside of school, the girl usually wore very girly, frilly clothing that boardered on lolita, always skirts, always ruffles, almost never anything darker than milk-chocolate brown, never anything heigher than flats.

Tsuna wasn't sure if Kyoko was aware just how uncomfortable she looked walking around in those clothes and hairstyles. It looked almost painstaking for her in Tsuna's eyes.

Even today, when Kyoko's hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail with sections braided and decorated with glittering pearls. Tsuna could practically see the girl twitching from the strain on her hair alone.

"It's okay…" Tsuna finally answered the girl, waving her hand in an attempt at easing her apparent internal self-scolding.

Glancing back to where she knew the guy was still staring at her, Tsuna mumbled under her beath.

"Italy huh…"

Yamamoto raised his eyebrow at her choice of subject.

"What's so interesting about that?"

Looking between her two classmates, Tsuna contemplated weather or not she should actually tell them or not. Finally, after a good hard look at Yamamoto's face and remembering how downright gullible and stubborn about hiw beliefs he can be sometimes, she decided to just let up and explain as much as she could to them.

"I don't suppose either of you would remember me speaking weirdly in our earlier days of school?" she asked slowly, fiddling with her fingers.

This threw the two of them off slightly.

"Not really…" Kyoko mumbled slowly, a reaction Tsuna had actually expected.

Yamamoto's however, was not.

"Now that you mention it…" he whispered, looking off into space.

"Well…" Tsuna continued, feeling a little awkward. "It made people think I was retarded because they only understood half of what I was saying." She brushed her hair behind her ear, not looking at either of them. "In reality, I grew up speaking a mix of Japanese and Italian, which made it difficult for me when I realized that not everyone could do that." Her fingers fiddled in front of her on te desk.

She knew, she just knew, that both pairs of eyes had now widened.

"How-" she didn't even bother allowing Kyoko to finish her sentence.

"My Dad would be like the new guy." She glanced at the corner of her eye again, not wanting to give away to said guy that they were talking about him. "Half Italian, all the while raised in said cuntry." She allowed herself to look up at her two long-time classmates. "He's actually from a… rather old bloodline I've just resently discovered is very much still around and active back in Europe."

This intrigued both of them.

"How old a bloodline?" Yamamoto found himself asking.

Tsuna found herself hesitating before answering.

"Four hundred years."

For a long moment, none of them said anything, just staring at Tsuna's lowered head before Yamamoto's voice broke through the silence between them.

"You're quite the little mystery, aren't you Sawada?"

Letting out a long breath, Tsuna allowed herself to fall onto the desk, burrying her face into her arms as she thought back on everything she'd been told over the last few days.

Not to mention everything she hasn't.

"Don't I know it." She mumbled into her skin.

* * *

She'd made it through the first lesson.

The teacher had asked her what had happened for her to miss one day but Tsuna hadn't been able to answer him, burrying her head into her arms to show the man that she really, really, didn't want to talk about what had happened to her.

Of course, there would still be a few people that didn't get the message.

A gentle tap on her shoulder forced Tsuna to raise her head from the desk.

"Sawada-chan." A gentle male voice rolled through the air, entering her ear in the calmest manner anyone could hope to achieve.

Turning towards the voice, Tsuna was met with the familiar head of wavy chestnut hair, bright blue eyes boaring down on her with a worried expression their owner did not even bother to hide.

It was strange to see him. She'd made it almost a point to never be alone with him, not because she didn't like him, but because he deserved something a lot better.

Even more now than ever before.

"Fujitaka-san?" she asked softly, straightening herself out. "What is it?"

The poor young man looked as though he wanted to bolt, his entire being trembling and eyes refusing to look at her for longer than a couple of seconds.

Really, she felt bad for him.

"I was wondering…" the ballet dancer was barely keeping himself from stuttering. "Why were you absent last Friday?" she knew that question was going to pop up, but it wasn't any easier just because of that. "The teacher hadn't received any word and I was worried."

Obviously, the last particular part wasn't said intentionally.

"You were worried?" Tsuna found herself asking before she could stop herself.

His bright blue eyes widened in terrified shock.

"I-I didn't m-mean it l-like-"

Taking pity on the guy, Tsuna decided to cut him off.

"It's okay." She stated, putting a small hand over his mouth, having quickly manouvered herself so she was sitting on her chair on her knees. She could practically feel the poor guy shivering under her touch. "I just… don't particularly want to talk about it."

Slowly, she removed her hand from his face, though his shoulders remained stiff.

Finally, he shook himself, allowing his shoulders to relax.

"I see…" he breathed, eyes clouded over with an emotion Tsuna hadn't seen before, thus had no idea how to interprit.

For a long moment, he just stared at her with that strange expression, he didn't snap out of it until Tsuna litterally snapped her fingers in front of his face.

Taking a deep breath, Fujitaka brushed his hair from his eyes.

"Well…" he mumbled. "I hope you're alright now."

And with that, the ballet boy turned around and walked back to his own desk.

"I do too…" Tsuna mumbled, falling back down onto her arms, hoping for a moment to clear her mind, to allow her a short moment to calm down her frantic nerves.

Of course, people wouldn't allow her that.

"Sawada." Yamamoto spoke up from behind her, forcing her to turn around to face him. "Please." He begged. "What happened?"

She gave him a long look before she turned right back round again.

"I'm not saying." She replied shortly.

For whatever reason, Yamamoto couldn't seem to accept that.

"Why not?"

The second he finished his sentence, her dainty little hand was shoved almost directly under his nose, his eyes crossed for a moment until he took a step back, still staring at the hand, and it wasn't until at that moment that he realized just how much it was trembling.

It was shaking so much that one must fear putting a can of soda in it.

Slowly, Yamamoto looked back up to Tsuna's face, seeing her serious expression.

"This is me at just the thought of vocally relaying what happened." She stated, her voice surprisingly steady despite the state of her hand, her eyes narrowing at the young man sitting behind her. "Why do you think?"

"Right…" Yamamoto answered slowly, bringing up his hand to bring hers down from his face. "I'm sorry for pressuring you."

"It's okay." She answered, turning back around to the front of the classroom.

* * *

A few rows down, the transfer student stared at the back of the messy-haired girl, his eyes unwavering with his head resting on top of his knuckles.

He'd been sent here, for that?

He couldn't for the life of him understand what was supposed to make that tiny porcelain doll special in the eyes of his superiors, she was a tiny, trembling mess that jumped as soon as someone just touched her soulder.

But, he was not the kind of person to turn away an opportunity when it was given.

He would do what was asked of him, and if that involved the close study of the fragile thing a few rows ahead, than he will do it.

"Sawada Tsunako, huh?" he mused to himself through the annoying chatter of the class around him.

* * *

It was the break between their last class and the final one, a space on the schedule that was usually blank for Tsuna, so it was strange for her that, in stead of turning right as she stepped out of the classroom in the direction of the exit, she turned left.

Turns out, she wasn't the only one who found this strange.

"Hey Sawada!" the familiar voice of the star athlete called out to her, forcing her to a stop before turning around to see him lightly jogging to catch up with her. "Where are you going?" his face sported the strangest combination of confusion and worry.

For a moment, Tsuna didn't know weather or not she should actually answer the man, but eventually, she decided that she actually didn't see any faults in the knowledge.

"A.A." was her short answer.

Of course, seeing as how she'd complained about said course's teacher several times to the athlete, he looked very much taken aback at his reply.

It took a second before he shook the shock off of his face.

"You're taking the acceptance test?" he asked, adopting a voice that Tsuna had a feeling was supposed to be encouraging but really just came across as severely confused in her ears.

"No." she answered, fingers clenching around the straps of her bag. "The teacher's already accepted me without me taking it."

Hazel eyes narrowed, black eyebrows furrowing in the rare serious expression that few knew even existed where Yamamoto was concerned.

"Is this favorism?" he asked, waving a hand in the air.

This made Tsuna frown as well, feeling almost filthy at the thought of Reborn favorising her, it was just too weird a concept.

"No." she answered swiftly, shifting her weight from one foot to another as her gaze drifted away from her long time classmate. "The class is come kind of emotional control course that the teacher felt I _need_ to take part in." her hand rose, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear as she attempted to look anywhere but at the young man in front of her.

"Huh…" Yamamoto breathed out, all seriousness suddenly gone from his face. Tsuna took this as a sign that it was alright to look at him again. "Then… what is that test about?"

Truth be told, Tsuna had been asking herself that question for a while now, but she had had too many questions, to many things on her mind for her to remember that thought.

"Don't know." She answered easily, looking away again for a second before she once again locked eyes with him. "Should I ask him?"

"Why not?" Yamamoto answered almost immediately.

The sound of the school bell ringing through the air brought their conversation to a halt, the warning bell. The two classmates broke eye-contact to absently stare into the air, listening to the clinging bells resonating through the building.

Turning his eyes back down to the tiny girl in front of him, Yamamoto put his hands on her shoulders, spinning her around before giving her a light shove in the direction she had been heading.

"Off to solve the mystery." And with that said, he too spun around, heading down the hallway with a much lighter step than he had had throught the day.

* * *

Moving through the school, Tsuna followed the directions Reborn had given her the day before, pausing at every other turn to try and make sure that she remembered the words of the teacher correctly.

She'd just climbed the stairs to the third floor when a hand grabbed her wrist.

Immediately, panic surged through her body, causing her to quickly spin around, yanking her wrist out of the foreign hand's grip, shrinking away against the concrete wall to put herself as far away from whomever had snuck up on her as possible.

She looked towards her possible attacker and suddenly, her nerves eased.

Almost sagging against the wall, Tsuna allowed herself to take a few deep breaths as she took in the bewildered expression on Hibari Kyoya's face.

"What happened?" the head prefect asked, eyes narrowing as he took a few steps up towards her.

Knowing what would happen if she told him the truth, Tsuna optioned towards the safer option.

"Nothing." She mumbled, masaging her wrist. "You just surprised me."

He didn't believe it, she could clearly see the disbelief in his steely eyes, but thankfully, he decided to not press for the information.

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, the head prefect looked every bit like the person in power he was.

"I've seen you spend quite a bit of time with Yamamoto Takeshi." He said, causing the young woman to raise an eyebrow at his choice of subject.

"I wouldn't say I've spent that much time with him." She mumbled, bringing up a hand to brush the fold of her other arm, turning her attention away from the surprisingly short yet powerful young man blaring down on her.

She could have sworn she saw a steel gray eye twitch from the corner of her vision.

"More than you spend with anyone else." He countered, sounding more like a little kid arguing than a prefect. It was a very strange experience.

"I guess." Tsuna answered, tilting her head in through before she looked back to the prefect. "But that's not really saying anything."

This, obviously didn't matter to the prefect.

"I don't want you to spend too much time with that guy."

This made Tsuna frown.

The guy saw it as his business who she hung out with? Since when did the two of them have the kind of relationship that allowed him that? How long had he thought of that as one of his many, many duties in school?

"Why?" she asked before she could stop herself.

The head prefect did not appretiate being questioned.

"Don't ask questions." He ordered, easily brushing off the subject before pointing down the corridor she'd been headed dow. "Go to class."

Slowly, Tsuna followed his demand.

"Alright…" she mumbled, turning around as she peeled herself off of the wall.

"And herbivore." He called out, causing Tsuna to once again pause in her path, turning around towards the young man that had called out to her. "Don't be afraid to seek me out if you need anything." And with that said, the head prefect turned around to walk down the opposite end of the corridor.

For a long moment, Tsuna just stood there, staring after the head prefect before he disappeared behind the corner.

"This day is just getting weirder." She whispered before she kept walking.

* * *

She found the classroom, only she found herself freezing in front of the door.

Apparently, Reborn had taken it upon himself to create a logo for the class, developed a plaque for said logo, and fastened into the door she was now standing in front of. However, that was not the reason she'd freezen up at the sight of that logo.

Slowly, Tsuna lifted the pendant from under her shirt, bringing it up in front of her line of sight, and there it was.

Her crest, the crest she'd had around her neck for a long, long time, had a central symbol in the shape of an intriquete flame, surrounded by other strange shapes, pearls, a pair of shotguns of all things and a winged clam. It was a strange yet beautiful design that she'd grown so accustomed to seeing, and now…

Tsuna let the pendant to fall back against her chest, her attention once again drawn to the logo on the door.

It was the exact same flame symbol as the one on her crest, only without everything surrounding it.

It was a strange thing to see.

Questions raging through her head, Tsuna grabbed the handle of the door and almost threw it open, stepping into the classroom where the teacher was waiting for her.

"Ah, Tsunako." Reborn greated her, stepping out from behind the desk, spreading his arms out in a sarcastic "showing off" or the room she'd stepped into. "Welcome to A.A."

It looked just like any other regular classroom in the building, if it wasn't for the logo stuck to the door she would have believed she'd stepped into the wrong room.

"That symbol…" She muttered, pointing towards the now closed door.

"Yes." Reborn finished for her. "I took the central piece of the crest hanging around your neck." He gave her a self-satisfied smirk. "Quite fitting don't you think?"

"I suppose it is…" Tsuna reluctantly agreed, allowing her bag to fall onto the desk closest to her. "But what does it mean?"

"The crest would be your own personal one." Reborn informed her as he stepped up to her, picking up the pendant from where it still rested against her chest, lifting it up in between them as he showed off the symbol. "This central piece however, will be found on the personal crests of everyone in your family one way or another." He moved his fingers towards the flame in the middle. "But remember." He paused, making her turn up to look up into his eyes. "Only the main branch of the family is allowed to have this symbol at the center of their crests."

"Huh…" Tsuna found herself mumbling, plucking the pendant from the teachers fingers.

Satisfied that she'd understood his answer, Reborn stepped away from his only student, allowing her the time to put her pendant back under her shirt.

"You know." She spoke up, buttoning up the front of her shirt. "One of my classmates asked me about your entrance test."

Reborn turned back towards her, eyebrow rising.

"What if it?" he asked, sounding quite bored.

The reaction pulled a groan from Tsuna's mouth as she took a few steps up towards the raised dias at the front of the room.

"What's the deal with it?"

Sighing, Reborn sat back down behind his desk, putting his hands on top of it as he turned his eyes back on his student.

"It's a test handling situation." He explained, linking his fingers together. "I basically watch the students through my other eyes as they take it."

His "other eyes" were the eyes he called the strange glowing ones he used whenever he wanted to see the state of her flame core. But the fact that he openly stated that he was using it on someone that wasn't her, made her just the tinyest bit confused.

Wasn't the flames something only her family had?

"Why?" she asked, expressing her confusion.

Tsuna watched as Reborn looked at her in the most degrading manner, almost as if he was thinking about just how idiotic she was, only serving to cofuse her even more than she already were.

Then, she watched in mild facination as that look morphed into realization.

"Right." He breathed. "I haven't told you."

Tsuna narrowed her eyes at this.

"Told me what?"

Squaring his shoulders, Reborn raised himself from the chair once again, hands stuffed in his pockets as he stalked over to his students, taking on that instructor voice that she'd gotten so used to hearing.

He cleared his throat.

"Whilst the Cuor DiLeone have a natural affinity for Anima, they aren't the only ones capable of activating it." He watched as the brief moment of disbelief flashed across his students eyes. "There are a few human beings, say…" he paused for a moment, glancing into the air in a rather exagerated look of thought. "Every fifth person." He finished, looked back down at his student. "Have a strong enough determination to activate the power as well."

Tsuna could feel her eyes widening in understanding.

"So the test is…" she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

"It's to see if there is any awakened people in this school." He walked around her, tilting his head from left to right before he corrected himself. "Or, 'Ignited' as we like to say." He turned around just as she did, once again meeting each other's eyes. "So far, everyone has failed."

He really did not look like he approved of these statistics.

"So…" Tsuna spoke up, brushing her hair behind her ear. "I'm 'Ignited'?" she asked, trying out the new term that had been thrown at her.

"No." was Reborn's immediate answer, throwing Tsuna for a loop. "I'd say you Ignited when you were a child for you to be Ashened." He explained, seeing the look on her face. "You're currently 'Embering'."

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna allowed herself to fall into one of the desks.

"Why would they Ashen me?" she asked, leaning her head onto her knuckles.

Reborn almost rolled his eyes at her reaction.

"Tsunako." He kneeled down in front of her. "Even if you are the Phonix, the flames are still dangerous." Tsunako slowly straightened in her seat, eyes firmly locked with her teachers, soaking in his words like a sponge. "As a child, your body would have still been in the development phase, not to mention having little to no control of your emotions." He leaned in closer, his expression almost blank. "Just imagine a phoenix younger than seven on the loose in a playground."

It didn't take long before Tsuna let out a sigh of resignation.

"A danger to everyone, including themselves."

"Exactly." Reborn immediately responded, getting up from the floor. "Now." He brushed his hands against one another. "Shall we begin?"

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna moved to sit on top of the desk.

"May as well."

* * *

She should have seen it coming.

She really should have, but everything had completely left her mind, so she wasn't thinking when she opened the door from inside of the A.A. classroom, pulling her bag over her shoulder as she stepped out into the corridor.

It was the silence that alerted her that something was up.

Slowly closing the door behind her, Tsuna allowed herself to glance around the room, and the sight made her blood run cold.

They were staring at her.

Everyone in the corridor were staring at her with mixed expressions that almost washed over her being as she took in their reactions.

Really… how could she have expected any other reaction?

A.A. was famous for never accepting any students into its course and suddenly the schools previously most bullied student is seen exiting when school is still in session. As the acceptance tests always took place after school hours, that could only really mean one thing where she was concerned.

Somehow, Dame-Tsuna had been accepted into the class.

She could feel the questions almost radiating off of the students surrounding her, and she really, really did not want to be subjected to them.

Before any of the teenagers surrounding her could work through their thoughts to find the question, Tsuna clenched her fingers around the straps of her bag, forced her legs into action and bolted.

Still running, she wove through the students as they moved to the cafeteria. Some did throw curious glances at her as she passed them but otherwise, they didn't pay her any attention, which was all fine and good with her.

What wasn't all fine and good however, was her balance.

Even with her brain slowly healing itself now when her seal was breaking, her balance still had a tendency to remain sub-par, and it was at a moment such as this that it finally decided to show itself once more.

She tripped, she didn't know over what but she suddenly found herself falling forward, the floor rapidly closing in with her face.

Suddenly, her fall came to a stop.

A pair of calloused hands on her waist yanked her up, spinning her around as she was raised, and suddenly she once again found herself staring into the eyes of the transfer student.

He'd caught her?

Why had he caught her?

Surprisingly gently, Gokudera raised Tsuna back to her feet, making sure that she had regained her balance before he let go of her.

It took an embarrassingly long time before Tsuna realized that her hands were on his forearms, tightly clenching onto his skin.

Forearms…

Why did she have to find them so attractive?

Shaking her head, Tsuna yanked her hands away from his pale skin, awkwardly stepping away from him.

"I'm sorry." She muttered, refusing to look at the very attractive young man.

For a moment, he just looked at her, taking in her actions, her silent language that she'd learned to read. She knew what he was seeing, what information he was probably gathering by looking her over.

She knew she probably didn't look at all interesting.

Finally, the transfer student stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Whatever."

Having got her reply, Tsuna gave a short nod, waisting not one second before she started walking again, silently rounding the transfer student and disappearing down the hallway, fingers returning to the strap on her bag.

She didn't see the slightly confused expression that passed over Gokudera's face as she walked, watching her leave, brow furrowing when he noticed that she wasn't turning back to look at him. He had seen that their encounter had effected her, he'd seen the tremmors and the nervous fiddling, but she was acting as though nothing had happened, but he knew differently. She'd brushed him off too frantically.

If she'd been any other girl he'd encountered, she would have allowed her touch to linger for as long as possible, but she hadn't.

He kept looking after her as she disappeared down the hall, and she could feel his eyes on her the entire way.

* * *

 **A/N: Where the chrest is concerned, please think of the original Vongola crest, but in stead of the bullet at the center, there's a flame design that could fit in as something created in the fire nation, along with a couple of pearls surrounding the symbol.**

 **That was actually a longer chapter than I've written in a while and I feel surprisingly good about myself for it.**

 **I really wish for you people to tell me what you think, any thought you had throughout the chapter that does not have anything to do with my horrid spelling, it is a problem no matter what language I write in, it's actually less flaws in English than it is in my birth-language so be happy. I'll go back and edit the chapters at a later date or else the chapters will never come out.**

 **I'll be back with the next chapter whenever I can.**

 **I love you all.**

 **This has been:**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	11. Scene 11: Overwhelming Sensations

**A/N: I have discovered the scenes that I enjoy to write the most. This chapter comed in multiple different points of views that may or may not come out of the blue at some points but I really enjoyed writing this chapter.**

 **I hope you like it.**

* * *

 **Scene 11:**

 **Overwhelming Sensations**

 ** _May 26_**

 ** _Tuesday 2215_**

You'd be surprised to rare the afternoon of which Tsuna was able to return to an empty house had become after Reborn had entered the household.

She really couldn't help the sigh of absolute relief that escaped her lips when she came home that afternoon to find the house locked up. A locked house meant an empty house, and an empty house meant, finally some alone time.

Slipping into her bedroom, Tsuna dropped her bag onto the floor before she almost collapsed in front of her desk, shuffling through her drawers for piles of papers and ink, feeling for drawing with one of those quill pens that her Papa had gotten her when he'd heard of her interest in art.

Only, when she looked for an ink bottle, she soon came to find that her old ink bottle had completely dried up. She hadn't used it in so long and the lid had somehow been loose enough that the entire contents had become completely useless.

Groaning, Tsuna chucked the old bottle into the trash-can, letting her head fall into her hand as she thought over what she was supposed to do now.

She couldn't turn to a normal ink pen, it would give a completely different effect than the one she wanted. She wanted to use a quill pen, but how could she do that when she's got no ink to dip it in?

It was at that moment, that she remembered something.

She did have an ink bottle, an ink bottle that she hadn't seen since the moment she'd seen that, in fact, she'd practically hidden it from herself in her spare cloth drawer and haven't open it ever since.

Now, she cautiously reached down to draw out that drawer, and there it lay.

The surprisingly large glittering crystal bottle of thick black liquid lay comfortably on top of a pillow of cloth and lace that Tsuna had removed from the garments she hadn't all approved of that she'd seen sent from her Papa. It looked quite out of place among the wide array of color within the drawer.

Almost hesitantly, Tsuna lifted the bottle from it's make-shift bed, bringing it up into the light before carefully settling it down onto her desk.

It took susprisingly long before she could bring herself to remove the crystal stopper.

Slowly, she reached out and closed her fingertips around the stopper, and removed it from the neck.

Immediately, the strangest sensation rushed over her, like a cold breeze washing over her from the front, yet her windows were shut, there was no wind, and her hair hadn't moved more than what it naturally should have.

Shaking off the sensation, Tsuna allowed herself to dip the tip of her quill pen into the ink and began her doodling.

She wasn't thinking, she allowed her mind to clear, and thus, it was a shock to her when she looked down and found herself doodling the same strange symbols that she'd been doodling when Reborn had first arrived at her home.

She'd looked down just as the symbol she'd been doodling was finished by her own hand, and it was at that moment that it happened.

Unlike when the bottle was just opened, this time, the strangest sensation treakled over her skin, feeling something like sticking her hand into a bucket of thin slime that stuck to her even as she pulled it out. It was a sensation that had come so suddenly, and was so strange an unexplainable that Tsuna actually dropped her pen, allowing it to fall clattering to the desk as she shoved herself away from the slab of wood.

Staring wide-eyed at the small splatter of ink next to the symbol, Tsuna could only think of one way to react.

"What in the world?"

* * *

 ** _May 27_**

 ** _Wednesday 2215_**

She hadn't meant for it to remain in her head for so long.

She'd hoped that she'd have forgotten those odd sensations, but they still remained in her head, tingling over her skin by the time she woke up that morning to the sound of her alarm, her entire beeing weighed down by her thoughts of the evening before.

She'd made her way through breakfast and the remains of her morning routine as though on autopilot, and even now, as she moved down the well known road towards the school building, her mind still mulling over with what had happened to her the previous afternoon, she was barely even aware that she was moving at all.

Of course, moving through the roads without actually paying attention was dangerous, and thus, it was only a matter of time before _it_ happened.

It had been the wind shifting that had alerted her to what would have almost happened, kicking her instincts into high geer quickly enough for her to dive out of the way just as a familiar black silent hoverbike shot right past her, right where she'd just been walking.

Heart in her throat, Tsuna stared at the familiar driver as he reared to a stop, almost yanking the helmet off of his head before he glared down at her.

"Watch where you're going." He growled, eyes narrowed.

"Sorry." Tsuna mumbled, swallowing heavily as she peeled herself off of the ground, knowing perfectly well that the young man was still looking at her from atop his vehicle. She tried to not mind him.

However, it would appear that he wouldn't have her ignoring him.

"Hey!" he called out as she moved to continue walking down the road, forcing her into a stop, cautiously turning towards him.

She had barely turned when something suprisingly large came hurling towards her.

Gasping, her hands flew up to catch that something, and thankfully, she succeeded in doing so, and suddenly, she found herself holding the helmet that she'd just seen Gokudera remove from his own head.

Blinking, Tsuna moved her gaze towards the new member of her class.

"Put it on." He practically ordered, sending her blinking yet again. He rolled his own eyes at her reaction. "You'll be late if you walk, and I'm sure you're like everyone else apparently alergic to tartiness." He rolled his eyes at his own words, leaning over the front of the vehicle as he almost glared at her.

Right… he was too new to the town to know.

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Tsuna fiddled with the helmet.

"If you want to survive until graduation, you'd better get on that train." She mumbled, mostly to herself.

Immediately, anger flashed through the guy's eyes.

"What did you say?" he growled.

"Nothing." Tsuna immediately piped up, swallowing before she held up the helmet as a change of subject. "What about you?" she asked, indicated for the dark sphere in between her dainty little hands.

Gokudera shook his head.

"Just have the one." He answered.

This visibly worried Tsuna, her eyes falling back to the helmet.

"But, what it-?" she didn't get to finish her sentence before the delinquent-like transfer student suddenly straightened in his seat on top of the vehicle, she stopped at the look he gave her.

"Do you want a ride or not?"

She couldn't say one more word. In stead, she rather hesitantly slipped the helmet over her head, moving towards the vehicle as she fastened the strap under her jaw. She didn't get any help to get on top of the vehicle, not that she needed one. She tried not to think that she was getting very closely behind a very handsome young man as she thanked her flexibility allowed her to climb onto the hoverbike with little to no problem.

Barely had she gotten onto the vehicle had Gokudera kicked the motor into high gear, the roar of life from the motor not noticable through the sound, but more from the vibration from the vehicle she was now sitting on.

The guy kicked the vehicle into motion, shooting off at a breakneck speed that forced Tsuna to throw her arms around the torso in front of her, pressing her entire body tightly to the semi-strangers back, eyes tightly clenches as one horrid thought razed through her mind.

 _"I'm going to die!"_

* * *

She had a surprisingly strong grip.

Gokudera was moderately impressed at the strength of the nobble-thin arms wrapped around his torso, the male digging in between his shoulderblades as he steered the vehicle down the streets, but he was adamant about not making anything from it.

He was actually surprised that in stead of clutching at his shirt, she was clutching at her own wrists, actually touching him as little as possible.

In fact, their whole intereaction this morning had been surprising to him.

Her nervousness as she talked to him, her concern at him not having a helmet of his own, the lack of blood rushing to her cheeks and her hesitance at getting on his bike, the perfect chance of getting physically close to him.

Unlike most of the women in his class, this doll of a girl seemed to be completely non-interested in him.

He would not be fooled however.

Finally, the two of them reach the school, and in stead of calmly sliding to a stop, he kept up with his regular means of rearing to a stop, gaining something of smug pleasure from the way her thin arms tightened even further around his torso.

Finally, the vehicle stopped moving, lowering to the ground, but his passanger still remained locked in place behind him.

Groaning in annoyance, Gokudera glanced over his shoulder at the lightly trembling frame of the doll-like girl.

"You can let go now." He growled.

Immediately, the noodle-like arms were yanked away from him, the small form yanked away from his back, finally allowing him some personal space.

"Sorry…" she almost whispered.

He took the sudden movement in the air behind him as the doll-like girl quickly removing herself from his bike, and soon enough, he heard two pairs of feet landing almost silently on the pavement at his side.

He allowed himself to actually look at the girl as she fidgeted where she stood, straightening out her uniform before she threaded her arm through the straps of her bag and lifted her hands up to unclasp the strap on the helmet under her jaw. He watched as she removed the helmet completely from her head, the pulling on her hair revealing more of her face than he'd ever seen before, probably more than anyone had seen in a while.

He was actually surprised.

He'd heard many stories about how the doll-like girl in front of him was unhygenic, but now he saw for himself just how clean her face actually was, no blemish in sight, and he certainly did not smell anything from her apart from soap.

She was clean, but she didn't appear to be.

Why couldn't she do anything about that mess of a hair?

Awkwardly, the girl handed him his helmet, only glancing at him from the corner of her semi-visible eye.

"Thank you." She mumbled.

He didn't bother answering, taking the helmet away from her fragile-looking hands, and with the weight removed, the doll disappeared towards the building, the yard almost completely empty due to the two of them arriving later than they used to. Gokudera watched as she vanished through the main doors, helmet still in his hands.

She'd thanked him.

She'd barely looked at him, and she'd thanked him.

That had never happened before, at least, without the bright blushing cheeks he was so used to seeing on the attractive young women.

For she was attractive, there was no doubt about that.

There was no way she was unaware of that herself.

* * *

Tsuna had to keep herself from running into the classroom that morning, effortlessly weaving through the classmates still standing between the desks even when the start of class was only minutes away, until she finally plomped herself down in her own chair, giving her desk a hard enough knock to light up the screen, allowing her to quickly login within the span of only one minute, a record for her really.

She was not the only one that noticed her breaking her tardiness record.

Yamamoto let out a chuckle as he took in her lightly dissheveled appearance, leaning over his own desk to tap her on the shoulder in an action that had become surprisingly common since the start of term.

Sure enough, the girl turned around to look at him.

"Cutting it close, aren't you Sawada?" Yamamoto laughed good naturedly, giving her a teasing kind of smile.

One of these days, he would get her to smile back at him.

She nodded back, her face neautral despite her slightly panted breaths as she brushed a few tangled locks behind her ear.

"I got a ride…" she mumbled, sounding quite uncomfortable at the fact.

This made Yamamoto raise an eyebrow.

God a ride?

She walked to school didn't she?

Her mother also walked to school, he knew that as the Crescent bakery is rather close by to his fathers sushi shop so he frequently saw the woman (he only knew she saw Tsuna's mother after they met in the hospital), so she couldn't possibly have gotten a ride from her.

So who could she have gotten a ride from?

He decided to scrap that thought till later, optioning on giving the girl a much more gentle smile than the one he'd just given her.

"Aren't you a lucky one?" he asked, watching as she hurriedly looked away from him.

"I guess…" was his nonchalant answer.

Just then, the door to the classroom opened once again, closely followed by the annoying sound of their female classmates bursting out into shrieks of delight at what could only be the arrival of the newest addition to their class.

Honestly, one would think that they had gotten used to seeing him, seeing as they are sharing the same class and all, but no. The ear-bursting shrieking continued.

Then suddenly, a thought struck Yamamoto.

Sawada had said she'd gotten a ride, and she'd arrived just a minute before Gokudera had done, and Gokudera arrives to school driving a motorbike…

Had Sawada somehow managed to hitch a ride with the delinquent?

The thought was to strange, so out there, that Yamamoto couldn't help but to worry that it was the truth.

After all, after just a few weeks of knowing the girl, Yamamoto was already well aware of her ability at unknowingly changing things to her favor.

He found himself frowning, something that is not usually seen on him.

Would Sawada become friends with Gokudera?

* * *

She hadn't had to come there, she could have just gone home at the end of class as P.E was the last class of the day, but she'd decided to stay, watch as her classmates run laps under the grilling rays of the sun, sitting on the bleachers as she observed them.

She really shouldn't have done this.

She could tell that Gokudera was both confused and annoyed as to why she was sitting on the sidelines, but he hadn't kicked up any fuss about it so she suspected that he didn't care enough to investigate, he just kept running along with everyone else, and as it turned out, he was actually quite athletic despite having been declared to be in the Academic division in the school.

It was when she'd allowed her eyes to follow the silver-haired young man that she spotted something that caused her blood to run cold.

Mochida.

Mochida Kensuke was standing on the edge of the field, his arm wrapped around the waist of one very uncomfortable looking Sasagawa Kyoko, face twisted into an expression that Tsuna was sure he believed to be flirtatious but only came across as an ugly twisted look that she was sure was just as endearing to Kyoko as it was for her.

She knew she shouldn't be looking at him, but she couldn't take her eyes away from him.

The cut on her jaw started to tingle.

Wait… no, it wasn't just the cut on her jaw that tingled.

Tsuna's eyes widened as the tingling of her fingertips registered into her mind, and it wasn't just the gentle prickling, oh no, it was boarderline a furious itching. If she didn't calm down soon, she woul combust.

Shooting up from the bleachers, Tsuna sprinted as fast as she could from the scene, heart beating wildly in her chest.

* * *

Yamamoto had just been finishing his tenth lap around the oval when everything happened.

It had become something expected as he ran to wave to Tsuna sitting on the bleachers every time he ran past her, but this time, he saw the girl sprinting away from her seat as though it was on fire. And what shocked him the most, was just how fast she was.

She was barely more than a blurry streak as she bolted from the scene, and seeing her obvious rush, Yamamoto felt the worry build up inside of him.

"Sawada!" he screamed after her, catching the attention of everyone close by to him, and soon enough, a small group of their class was staring after the quickly disappearing figure, until she seemed to vanish behind the equipment shed.

Fujitaka was the first one who moved Yamamoto realized when he thought back on that moment, and yet, out of everyone in their small group, Yamamoto was the first one who crouched down in front of Sawada.

They'd found her sitting against the outer wall of the shed, her knees drawn up tightly to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs with her fingers tightly clenches into fists, her entire being was shaking.

"Sawada?" Yamamoto asked, speaking as softly as he could. "What's wrong?"

When she didn't answer, Yamamoto schooched the tinyest bit closer, intending to ask another question when someone beat him to it.

"That guy back there." Gokudera spoke up, stepping out from their smaller group. "The one disgustingly clinging onto that red-head." Sawada's shoulders tensed up at the description, letting everyone know that she was actually listening, Gokudera's eyes narrowed. "Did he do something to you?"

Everyone suddenly felt themselves stiffen where they were standing.

Done something?

Just what could he mean by that?

Sawada just kept shaking, her face burried in her arms before she allowed her fingers to loosen, only for them to immediately latch onto the fabric of her blazer, clutching at it as she slowly, slowly, raised her head to look at her long-term classmate.

"Mochida-sempai…" she shakily spoke up, her mouth still half-burried in her arms, refusing to look at anyone of them. It was quite hard to look at. "What is his relationship with Sasagawa-san…?" she whispered her question, almost stumbling over the words, her voice shaking something violently.

Yamamoto's eyes widened.

Did Sawada have feelings for Mochida-sempai?

Swallowing, Yamamoto cleared his throat, moving just a little bit closer to her.

"Well…" he breathed. "They're a clouple."

Sawada's eyes widened, her body still shaking, her fingers clutching at her blazer hard enough to make her knuckles turn white, she's still not looking at anyone.

"How long have they been a couple?" she asks, voice still trembling, but there was something about her that appeared to be a lot steadier, despite the obviously fragile state of both her mind and emotions.

Fujitaka was the one who answered her.

"I saw them on a date last Saturday." The ballet dancer answered, standing not too far away from Yamamoto and Gokudera. "They would have hooked up sometime last Friday." All eyes were on him as he spoke. "I do believe it was due to Mochida's friends being admitted into the hispital."

Tsuna's head snapped up, eyes locking onto Fujitaka.

"What?" she asked, the tremmor suddenly absent from her voice.

It took a while before Fujitaka found himself able to talk again, staring at the sudden lack of shaking in Sawada's body. It was just on accident that he'd been the one who overheard the two talking last Friday and then seen them in town on Saturday. But having to relay the information to Sawada was…

He forced himself to clear his throat.

"Yeah…" he answered awkwardly, not looking at Sawada. "Apparently, Mochida-sempai was pretty torn up about what happened and Sasagawa decided to comfort him." He shifted in a way very similar to how both Yamamoto and Gokudera had seen Sawada herself do on several occations, only for some reason, the reason behind the shifting felt different with Fujitaka than with Sawada. "I suspect Mochida asked her out around that time." The dancer looked as though he regretted his words the second he said them.

Yamamoto coughed, turning the attention towards him as he prepared himself to ask what he suspected a majority of the people around him was thinking.

"Sawada… do you like Mochida-sempai?" he asked.

Immediately, the girl's head snapped towards him, her large eyes narrowed almost into a glare as her fingers twisted the cloth of her blazer.

"I wouldn't touch that guy with a mile-long pole." She spoke with as much malace as any of them had ever seen, not quite anger, no real annoyance, more fear mixed with disgust, but it was still as much genuine dislike than they had ever seen, and the majority of them had been bullying her for as long as they've been in school. Soon, Sawada burried her face back into her arms, but she still kept talking. "If I had seen him at his graduation in stead of today… it would have been too soon."

That shocked everyone into silence.

"Sawada…" Yamamoto had to keep himself from reaching out to the girl. "Was… was Mochida-sempai the one who…?" he couldn't even bring himself to say it.

And apparently, neither could Sawada.

"I can't talk about it." She mumbled into her arms.

"Sawada-ch-." Fujitaka tried, but the girl wouldn't let him.

"No." she cut him off, glancing at him from over her arms. "I really can't talk about it…" she insisted with a few deep breaths. "I don't know what it'll do to my emotions."

Fujitaka blinked as Sawada hid her eyes from them once again.

"Okay…" he relented.

Everyone watched as the tremmors returned to Sawada's body, and finally, Yamamoto had enough of seeing her in such a state.

"Alright." He said so suddenly that he caused a few of their classmates to jump, they watched as the athlete moved closer to Sawada, finally allowing himself to reach out and grasp her shoulders, forcing her to sit up a little straighter. "Come on."

"What are you doing?" Sawada asked in confusion, blinking at her long-time classmate.

"I'm taking you to the infirmary." Yamamoto answered, forcing Sawada to her feet. "You need to rest." He pulled her away from the wall of the shed, moving behind her as he put his hands just below her shoulders, beginning to lead her away from the scene.

"No." the girl suddenly said, forcing the athlete into a stop. "I need Reboyama-sensei."

Thrown off, Yamamoto stared at Sawada.

She needed a teacher?

Why would she need a teacher?

Then he recalled what she'd told him two days ago. A.A was a course for controlling your emotions, and at the moment, Sawada most definitely was not in control of said emotions. Of course she would be in need of that king of teacher then.

"Okay…" he relented, hands tightening on her shoulders. "Okay." He said with a much steadier voice as he began to lead the girl away again. "Let's take you to Reboyama-sensei." He agreed.

"Thank you." Came Sawada's surprisingly timid answer.

* * *

The classmates remained by the shed, staring after the athlete as he led away the emotionally unstable girl, each one of her steps trembling even as the two of them disappeared into the school building. It wasn't until the door closed behind them that their classmates finally thought it was safe to talk again.

"You think he raped her?" Kudou Yuki asked, scratching at her forearm, the sight of her classmate in such a state bothering her more than she was letting on.

"No." her childhood friend, Fujitaka Sakura answered her. "No, he wouldn't have gotten that far… I think…" he looked as though he wanted to believe his words, but he didn't entierly believe the words himself, and that fact did not sitt well with him. He allowed himself to wrap his fingers around Yuki's hand as a form of comfort.

Gokudera rolled his eyes at their words.

"No." he answered, tucking his hands into his pockets as the eyes of everyone around turned towards him, it was the confidence of which he spoke that one word that had done it. "Not raped."

Within seconds, the newest addition to the class found the face of Fujitaka Sasuke hovering within inches away from his own.

"How do you know?" the young man answered, voice hovering on the edge between desperation and confusion.

Gokudera rolled his eyes once again, deliberately moving away from the pathetically frantic dancer, hands still tucked into his pockets as he kept his gaze pinned on the door the two teenagers had disappeared behind.

"She's got the scar of a cut on her jaw." He answered the dancer, not even bothering to look at him. "Assault." He said, eyes narrowing. "But not of the sexual kind."

Immediately, mumble broke out through the small group he'd somehow found himself in.

"How horrible." One very wide-eyed girl gasped, a hand over her mouth. Gokudera recognized her as one of the girls that went after the baseball enthusiast in stead of him, so she was more tolerable than the text girl who spoke.

"To have experienced something like that."

Quietly, as the classmates chattered amongst themselves, Gokudera slipped away from them, returning to where the rest of the class was still running laps and it was there that he spotted the sorry excuse of a man.

He was still there, his arm still wrapped around the read-head's waist, pulling her closer to him with that disgusting look on his face, and obviously blind to the girl's attempts at pushing him away, to keep his offending mouth away from hers.

"Disgusting…" Gokudera found himself muttering.

* * *

Tsuna desperately attempted to keep her breathing in controll as Yamamoto led her through the halls of the school. It was hard to clear her mind as the athlete's hands clutched at her arms, keeping her upright, and the words of Fujitaka still rang through her mind as their feet echoed over the walls.

Sasagawa was dating Mochida?

Mochida's friends had wound up in the hospital by Friday?

What was going on? She couldn't quite wrap her mind around it, it just couldn't be true, it was too much.

She needed Reborn.

Soon enough, she herself pulled the two of them to a stop in front of the familiar logo of the flame. She didn't have to say anything for Yamamoto to understand that they've reached the classroom, to his credit, he only briefly glanced at the logo in confusion before he threw the door open.

As luck would have it, Reborn was in the middle of a test for a male third-year when the athlete had thrown the door open.

Standing up from the desk, Reborn gave Yamamoto a glare.

"Yes?" he asked, the anger very present in his voice. That is, until he noticed just who it was that the athlete was pulling inside. "Tsunako?"

Tsuna could feel the confusion and suspision radiate off of Yamamoto as Reborn immediately dismissed the young man that was taking the test, telling him to return the same time the next week before the teacher walked over towards the two classmates, taking Tsuna by the hands and leading her towards a desk where he set her down, putting his hands on her shoulders as he looked her into the eyes. She knew what the look meant, it was the look he always wore during their training sessions, and thus, she also knew what he wanted her to do.

Nodding to the teacher, Tsuna allowed her eyes to close.

* * *

Seeing his student slip into the familiar position, Reborn could already feel her temperature lowering as she cleared her mnd.

Pleased, Reborn turned towards the classmate that had brought her to him.

"What happened?" he asked, eyes narrowing in a silent order for the young man to tell him the truth, and to tell him quickly.

He watched as the young man's back straightened under his eyes.

"She saw Mochida Kensuke during P.E." he answered, his own eyes traveling over to Tsunako, expression drenched in worry. "She just freaked."

Mochida Kensuke… so he was the one.

His mood darkened at the realization, especially since he remembered the young man as one of the many that had come to him to try if they were accepted into his crass. He'd been incredibly confident that he would be accepted, and upheld that thought until well after the test when Reborn was "checking the results", he'd put up quite the fuss when Reborn had declared that he would not be accepted.

And now he find out that that over-confident young man was the one who tried to mutilate his student's face…

He had to keep himself from leaving the room.

Slowly, the teacher walked to his desk, his hand fiddling with his obsidian-type gem.

"I wouldn't be surprised." He finally said, in turn, surprsing the helpful young man in the room.

"You know what happened to her?" the young man asked, stepping up closer to the desk.

"Not entierly." Reborn answered, sitting down on his chair. "I was the one that found her that day though." He threw a glance to his students, taking in the tremmors that were still stubbornly remaining in her body. "She's pretty much entierly healed up physically, but her emotions are still very much frayed."

Realization flashed through the eyes of the young man.

"That's why you insisted on her taking your course." He breathed, interesting Reborn.

Tsunako had told this young man their story. Reborn knew Tsunako enough to know that she only really talked to people she believed to be good people, and for her to be talking to this young man…

"Yes." Reborn answered, studying the young man.

Athletic division, that much was obvious, with clear care for his student which to him, was great news. His mouth twitched. "You should return to class." He said, getting back up from the chair.

For a longer moment, the young man looked over Tsunako's trembling frame until finally, he let out a long sigh.

"Fine." He relented, turning around towards the door, only to pause with his hand hovering over the handle, throwing yet another glance towards the meditating girl. "She'll be fine right?"

This finally called forth the smirk on Reborn's face.

"How long have you shared a class with her?" he asked, shocking the young man.

"Basically since pree-school." He answered.

Reborn had to keep himself from chuckling.

"Then what do you think?"

It didn't take long before the wory washed off of the young athlete's face.

"She'll be fine." He answered, voice steady and a small smile on his mouth.

"Exactly."

* * *

 **A/N: I have decided that I will not upload the next chapter until I have received a certain number of reviews that are longer than one sentence. This is not because of greed, but because I worry about what you humans think of what I'm writing without you actually TELLING ME!**

 **Honestly, don't hold back your thoughts, write them down, tell me, give me everything you've got that is not comments on my spelling because I already know about that and will deal with it on a later date. Also, the actual words from people liking what I'm writing actually keeps me writing!**

 **So I'm begging you, tell me what you think and I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as possible.**

 **This has been:**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	12. Scene 12: Everyday Struggles

**A/N: I have received 100 reviews! Thank you all so much, especially those that usually do not. I have received a few questions that I will dedicate this section of the chapter to answer.**

 **Will Tsuna ever use a weapon?**

 ** _If you considder special gloves to be a weapon, then yes._**

 **Will Hibari know what happened with Mochida?**

 ** _I do believe that that question will be answered in this chapter._**

 **Will the ballet boy be a guardian?**

 ** _No he will not, but I do have other plans for the young man that won't come into play until a few acts into the series._**

 **Will Tsuna learn how to fight?**

 ** _She will, through means that I quite look forward to writing._**

 **Will Reborn test all the guardians for Anima?**

 ** _I haven't really given this much of a thought, but I do believe that they will not._**

 **Are there going to be guardians in this?**

 ** _Yes, I do not know why there wouldn't be._**

 **Are they going to be different?**

 ** _The guardians going to be different? I'm afraid that I don't quite understand this part of the questions and thus am unsure as to how I should go about answering it._**

 **Those were the questions I've received, and if I get more I shall answer them as well, I quite like receiving them.**

 **Until then, I shall leave you to the chapter.**

* * *

 **Scene 12:**

 **Everyday struggles**

The final bell had rung by the time Tsuna finally allowed herself to open her eyes.

The time it had taken for her to fully wind down her frantic emotions had exhausted more than she honestly liked to admit, seeing the face of the man that had frayed them to begin with only serving to practically shatter all progress she'd done from that day.

Thankfully, she'd managed to assemble herself before the fire got the better of her.

When she'd opened her eyes and discovered that she'd been stuck in her own empty mind for more than half an hour, and it was high time to return home.

Reborn had almost chased her out of the classroom, telling her he would need to go to the offices for a few hours before he could join her. She'd been rather reluctant, not knowing if she'd bee able to make it half way to the house before her nerves caused her to break down again.

She didn't want to be alone, not now.

Thankfully, she soon found that she wouldn't have to.

"Hey, Sawada!" she heard a voice calling out to her just before she reached the school gates, causing her to almost spin around in a full circle at the speed of which she turned to face the voice, she calmed down significantly when she saw Yamamoto jogging towards her. "Maybe I should walk you home." He panted once he stood in front of her.

Tsuna could feel her eyes widening just as the athlete's face lit up in a bright red color.

"I mean…" he muttered, scratching at the back of his head. "We live down the same road anyway…" he shifted awkwardly where he stood, not looking at her.

It took some time before Tsuna found her voice.

"Er…" was all that came out before finally, she cleared her throat. "I guess." She answered slowly.

The smile absolutely lit up Yamamoto's features, shining up his eyes in a way that caused Tsuna to keep herself from rearing back in a start.

When was the last time she'd seen the athlete's eyes light up like that?

When was the last time she'd seen an actual tru expression on his face without really knowing that it had been false?

"Great." The young man expressed, almost showing off all of his teeth, stepping forward to gently grasp her elbow before almost dragging her the rest of the way through the school gates.

* * *

They passed the Sushi shop along the way, and still Yamamoto walked with her, all the way to the gates of her own home.

"You'll be alright now?" he asked, letting go of her elbow before she faced him.

Nodding she put her hand on the gate.

"Yes." She answered, giving the athlete a small smile. "Thank you."

Smiling back, eyes glowing with that same light that had remained in his eyes throughout their entire walk, the athlete raised his hand to gently pat her on the head, like one would pat the head of a sibling.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He said before he turned back where they'd just come from.

Tsuna quickly moved into her home, and she wasn't at all surprised when she entered through the front door and found her mother already waiting for her.

"Tsuna-chan!" the woman explained, face alit in a bright exhited smile. "That was the boy from the hispital, wasn't it?" she hurried over to the door, peering through the windows lining the frame as she stared after the boy's retreating figure.

"Yamamoto-san." Tsuna answered slowly as she removed her shoes from her feet. "He's just a classmate."

A laugh tore it's way through Nana's voice as she removed herself from the window, stepping away from the window to face her.

"A classmate that walks you home and pats you on the head?" the woman had giggling laced through her voice as she slowly stepped up to her daughter. "A male classmate at that." Nana giggled, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Mom…" Tsuna groaned, rolling her eyes as she moved towards the stairs.

"I'm just kidding." Nana laughed before she glanced back out the window in the direction where the athlete had disappeared. "It was nice of him though." She pointed out.

Tsuna paused in the stairs, her mother's words ringing through her head.

"It was…" Tsuna answered with a breath.

* * *

She didn't think.

She couldn't think, not if she wanted the shapes to actually do something when she finished with them, not to mention, if she wanted the shape to come out looking similarly to the one's she'd already doodbled on the page in front of her.

Suddenly, a sensation washed over her, a sensation that told her that her current doodle was finished.

Eyes snapping open, Tsuna turned her eyes down towards the page, her hands almost flying off of it so that she might look at it. Quickly, before the sensation really had the time to fade out of her mind, she snatched up a notebook from the corner of her desk, picking up a mechanical pencil and began sbribbling down the exact sensation that had overcome her, along with a siplified version of the doodle.

Her notebook was almost a quarter of the way full already, full with the notifications she'd taken of over twenty doodles and the sensations she'd gotten from them. Each and every one different from the other.

It was both intriguing and horrifying, the things she was feeling.

One of the doodles had given her the strange sensation of being gently pricked by needles all over her fingertips, another had been like stuffing her hand into a jar of needles.

Soon enough, she suspected, she would find one that felt like stuffing her hand into a meat grinder.

Finally, she set the notebook down, picking up her quill-pen as she did, turning back to the paper, clearing her mind to begin yet another doodle.

"You should be careful with that." The voice cut through the silence of the room.

The suddeness of the voice caused Tsuna to jump in her seat, almost dropping her pen as she spun around to face her teacher.

"Stop doing that!" she almost screamed at him, eyebrows contorted in annoyance, pen still in hand as she rose from the chair.

The man only chuckled, hands in his pockets as he stalked up to the desk, peering down at the work she'd busied herself with for the past couple of hours.

"If you're not careful, you might wind up causing quite the accident one of these days." He stated, moving his eyes from the doodles and onto her instead.

This only servef to make her frown even more.

"What do you know about them?" she asked, pointing towards the strange symbols with her ink-tipped pen.

Reborn let out a sigh, bringing up a hand to rub the bridge of his nose.

"I cannot tell you." He answered her courtly.

For the first time in a while, she could feel the anger building up inside of her, something that hasn't happened in several years.

"Why not?" she asked slowly, her voice growing darker as her eyes slowly narrowed at her teacher.

Picking up her notebook, Reborn began flipping through the pages, reading through each and every one of her hurriedly jotted down notes before he turned back towards his students, whos patience was starting to wear thin.

"You're not ready to know." He answered her, putting her notebook back down.

"What makes me not ready?" she almost demanded, throwing her arm out, a small drop of ink forming at the tip of her pen the more she was flicking it about.

Reborn noticed that drop, his features relaxing before he looked back into her eyes.

"Don't waste the ink Tsunako." He commented, stepping away from the desk before he turned back towards her again, that stupid smile back on his face. "I came up to tell you that supper's almost finished."

As she watched her tutor walk out of her bedroom, Tsuna just barely caught the one drop of ink fall from the tip of her pen, landing on the wood of her desk.

She would have ignored it, had it not been for the sudden sound of searing that reached her ears, making her snap her attention towards the spot where the ink had dropped, and what she saw made her eyes widen in shock.

The ink was burning the wood, searing it badly before the ink ran out and the glowing embers they created, leaving only a black spot in the brown and twirling strikes of smoke rising into the air above it.

Shocked, Tsuna immediately cleaned the tip of her pen, throwing the piece of cloth she'd used into her fireproof trash-can as she noticed it starting to burn as well.

Quickly, but carefully, she lifted the ink bottle, sealed it up tightly before she fetched a small key from her pencil stand, turning her attention towards the small casket that she hadn't opened in several years.

She hesitated before she put the key in the lock, turning it before the lid snapped open. Thankfully, the first thing she spotted was a silk handkerchief covering the contents already inside. She didn't see what she'd put inside years ago, and she didn't want to.

Gently, she put the ink bottle inside, closing the lid and locking it up tightly once again.

Sinking into her chair, Tsuna tried to understand what, just what, had just happened to the surface of her desk.

* * *

 ** _May 28_**

 ** _Thursday 2215_**

She was getting ready for school in front of the mirror when Reborn stepped inside, making her jump when she spotted him in the mirror behind her.

Still buttoning her blouse, she turned towards the teacher.

"Tsunako." He said, stepping up to her, his hands firmly in his pockets. "I have to ask you-." She didn't allow him to finish in her annoyed state.

She had woken up with something of a headache, one that she hoped would disappear once she got some food and drink into her system.

"What?" she asked.

Thankfully, he didn't appear at all offended.

"Yamamoto Takeshi." He began slowly, stepping up towards his student with an odd look in his eyes. "Would you say he is your friend?"

The question threw her off quite a bit.

It took some time before she could find it in her to answer him.

"I'm not sure." She answered slowly, picking her bag up from the floor, allowing it to swing slowly from her side as she contemplated her answer. "It's difficult to read that man sometimes." A small frown spread across her face as she thought over her words. "His actions say one thing whilst his expressions say another." She growned at the memory. "Sometimes his true feelings are obvious but other times…" she turned back towards her teacher. "I just don't get him."

A small surprised look spread across Reborn's face.

"He can hide his emotions from you?" he asked, eyes widening the tinyest fraction.

"I don't think he does it intentionally." Tsuna explained, tilting her head as she fidgeted under her teachers gaze.

"All the more reason to be intrigued." He almost insisted. "Do you want to considder him your friend Tsunako?" he pierced her with his gaze, narrowing his eyelids as he took in his student's behavior.

"In some ways… I already considder him to be one." She answered slowly, shifting as she let her bag swing back and forth from her hand, looking to her side whilst biting her lip. "But I don't know weather he considderd me to be one of his."

She didn't remain there for much longer, rounding her teacher before disappearing down the stairs, feeling his eyes booring into her back along the way.

The smell of breakfast was calling her name.

* * *

Hibari Kyoya was sitting at his desk in the reseption room going through the reports he'd just been given by the prefects patrolling the school, when there was a knock on the door.

If he'd been any other man, he would have started, but he still found the sound odd by one simple factor.

No one knocked on the reseption room door.

Everyone were too afraid to knock on his door and the only one who did enter was Kusakabe, and he never knocked.

"Enter." He called out, curious as to who was brave enough to even approach the door that had become so widely associated with him over his time in the school.

Imagine his surprise, when a very familiar face stepped in.

The head prefect had to fight to show little more than brief confusion on his face as he took in the messy locks of golden brown hair covering up half the face of the petite ballet dancer. It interested him that she barely fidgeted under his gace.

"Sawada Tsunako…" he greated the girl, watching for any sign of discomfort, but was surprised when there was none. "Why are you here?"

Now, finally, he got that sign of discomfort he was looking for.

Shifting from one foot to another, the girl seemed to be contemplating her actions before she finally took a deep breath, fumbling with her hands before she stepped further into the room, closing the door behind her.

"I found out yesterday that the two friends of one Mochida Kensuke were admitted into the hospital some time ago…" her voice trailed off as it slowly began to shake, the strength leaving as her nerves failed her.

Hibari had to fight to keep the frown off of his face.

"They were." He answered her, getting up from his chair before stepping out from around the desk, taking a few steps over towards the girl. "But why should that concern you?" he asked, putting a hand at the back of one of the two couches in the room.

The girl shook for a moment before she found herself speaking again.

"They…" her breath caught in her throat before she managed to regather her composture. "They assaulted me." She finally got out, her voice shaking as she rubbed at her forearms. "Just last Thursday."

The anger flared inside the prefect but her forced it down.

"What kind of assault?" he asked, stepping away from the girl towards the file cabinet standing to the wall next to the desk.

"Nothing sexual…" the girl immediately answered, waving her hands almost frantically in the air before they returned to fumbling in front of her mid-section. "Thankfully." She breathed.

Hibari allowed himself a brief lapse of silent relief.

Then, she spoke again.

"Just…" she muttered, bringing up the one hand to brush over a feint scar on her jaw. "A knife was involved." At her words, the anger once again flooded Hibari's business, but he forced himself to calm down as the girl's hands lowered, shaking her head before she looked at him with a steadiness that was not usually seen in the people he encountered. "Look, I just want to know what happened to them."

"I see…" Hibari answered, happy at the distraction. "I shall take note of that for later."

Turning back towards the filing cabinet, he opened one of the drawers before throwing a brief glance in the direction of the girl.

"Sit down."

It took little time to find the files he needed, being one of the fiew people that still kept physical files and knew exactly where everything was, he soon turned back around towards the girl sitting in the leather couch with her hands on her lap.

Stalking towards her, he threw the files down in front of her.

Still, she didn't flinch.

"Mori Ranmaru, 2-D, Athletic division." He spoke up, sitting down in the couch facing her, crossing his legs as he made himself comfortable. "And Akisuki Makoto 2-A, Athletic division." He watched her as she picked the files up from the table, carefully flicking through the papers. She was used to handling paper, that much was possible. "Were both found brutally beaten half to death in an alley three blocks from here last Thursday."

Immediately, the girl's head snapped up to look at him.

"Last Thursday?" she asked, sounding somewhat bewildered.

This intrigued him.

He also knew it was the day before she'd mysteriously been a no-show in class. Of course, at the time, he hadn't made the connection between her and the two students.

"It would appear." He spoke up again, keeping his eyes locked with hers. "That someone took revenge on them for you." She was the one that broke eye-contact, looking back at the files.

Hibari watched as she brushed her fingertips over the pictures that had been taken of the scene of the chrime, as well as the pictures of the young men in their hospital beds that had been taken after the emergency operations that had saved their lives.

"Are you satisfied with the answer?" he asked after a moment of silence.

She snapped her almost entierly hidden eyes from the pictures back to him, he could see them twinkling even through the hair.

"Yes." She answered in a breath, closing the folders and putting them in a neat pile in front of her, straightening out her skirt as well as her spine.

For a moment, she looked indecisive, before she finally opened her mouth. "Just one more thing." She bit her lip, eyes firmly locked on her hands in her lap. "Did you find the person who did it?"

Hibari's eyebrows forrowed at her choice of subject.

"No." he answered her slowly. "We did not."

He watched the girl as she took a deep breath

"I see…"

Shaking her head and clearing her throat, she rose from her seat.

"Well…" she mumbled, brushing over her skirt, lifting her head to give the prefect a small smile. "Thank you… Hibari-san." She bowed surprisingly firmly before turning towards the door.

However, he couldn't have her leave just yet.

"There's more to this story isn't there?" he spoke up before the girl could really reach the door.

She paused before her hand reached the door handle.

"What?" she asked, turning back around to face him, a slight shake to her shoulders.

Oh, so _now_ she was nervous…

"Your assault." Hibari elabourated. "There's more to it than just the two of them attacking you is it not?"

The tremmor that overcame her was enough to affirm his suspision, though funnily enough, the girl herself decided to clarify it anyway.

"There is." There is, she answered truthfully, clasping her shaking hands in front of her. "But I have a feeling that a certain someone wants me to deal with it myself." She didn't look at him, she didn't need to do so, and that was all well and good for the head prefect as he allowed his face to twist with almost annoyed confusion.

Quickly, the girl spun back towards the door, clasping the handle.

"Good day, Hibari-san."

Well, he couldn't have her leaving just yet.

"Herbivore." He called out, clearing his face of all emotion before she turned back towards him yet again.

"Yes?" she asked, sounding a lot more cautious this time around.

He'd have to clear that up not wouln't he?

"It's been six weeks since you got shot." He kept his eyes on her, studying her reaction to his words before he allowed himself to continue. "Is everything functioning normally?"

Much to his surprise, she smiled at him.

"Yes…" she answered slowly, her voice holding a quiet joy that even served to warm the heart of the head prefect. "Everything is functioning better than I ever remember in fact." She blinked slowly before giving Hibari yet another parting nod, one that he returned, fighting his own smile off of his face.

Just as Sawada opened the door, the deputy head prefect stepped into the view of the frame, freezing up at the sight of the tiny young woman.

She too, froze up at the sight of him, though her eyes held none of the chill.

"Kusakabe-san." She greated the deputy head prefect with a small nodd.

"Sawada." He greated right back, nodding before she slipped past him, allowing the taller man to slip into the room, obviously keeping himself from almost slamming the door shut before he turned around to his long time friend and superior within the school walls.

Hibari himself sunk into his chair, rubbing at his temple.

"Kyo-san…" Kusakabe spoke up in a low voice as he hurried over to the desk, catious hope shining in his eyes. "Did she-?" he didn't get to say much more than that.

"No." he answered with a long sigh, leaning back into his chair as he stared longingly at the door Sawada's just disappeared behind. "She still remembers nothing."

* * *

A forced free-period.

Tsuna cursed time and time again that sitting on on the ballet lessons made her feel bad, and of course, she was still unable to actually partake in the lessons and seeing her classmates twirling around made her want to join them.

And so, she was left wandering the school grounds until the next class.

It was a boring time, but one she could bare enough as it was only a temporary solution to an even more temporary problem.

As she was walking along the grounds at the back of the school, somewhere that was rather new for her, she suddenly heard the sound of the whistling of something shooting through the air before hitting something with a loud thud. That wouldn't have been that strange considdering the archery field was very close by. What was strange though, was that the thud was closely followed by the ear-splitting sound of girls frantic squeeing.

Winching, but sill curious, Tsuna allowed herself to follow the sound, and soon, she stood just outside the Archery field, putting her hand on the fence as she took in the crowd that had gathered behind it.

And at the center of it all, stood Gokudera.

Dressed in the traditional Japanese archery garb, though admittedly, not worn the way they actually should be worn, the young man still managed to draw his bow with percision and grace that Tsuna hadn't seen in any of the other members of the class the few times she'd seen them before.

Again, the girls started squeeing, causing Tsuna to flinch.

Gokudera however, didn't, and upon closer inspection, Tsuna saw the genious of her newest classmate.

He was wearing special ear pieces. Tsuna doubted that the man was hearing anything other than the inner workings of his own body at this point.

She watched as his piercing olive-green eyes narrowed in concentration, gace focused on the aray of targets positioned several meters in front of him.

She found herself holding her breath.

Every time she'd seen him, he'd had this tense angry look about him, but this time… he looked almost serene. His whole being seemed to radiate a sense of calm that probably would have looked alien on him had it not suited him so very, very well.

Eventually, Gokudera released the arrow, allowing it to fly with impeccable percision, hitting a perfect bullseye on the painted cirlce of straw.

She didn't know what happened, but the second that arrow connected, she felt as though her breath was sucked out of her lungs.

* * *

It was a rare moment where Tsuna could finally sit down in front of her easel, something had has been removed from the attic a few days before when Nana had been cleaning. Of course, Tsuna had been quite adamant about it being moved to her bedroom immediately, quite shocked that it had been up there without her knowing about it.

It had been a long time since she'd felt as relaxed as she did now, even painting her wall hadn't been quite as relaxing as one would have liked it to be for her, the constant moving around and stretching of her arms was too straining on her for that to be the case. But now, sitting in front of a canvas after such a long time, it was like sinking into a hot bath after a day in the rain.

She'd been so caught up in the ease and calm of the moment, that she hadn't heard the footsteps, or even her bedroom door opening.

"Your skills never sieze to amaze me." The voice snapped her out of her thoughts, almost causing her to accidentally change the direction of her brush, but she did manage to keep her hand on track despire the rest of her body jumping at the shock. Groaning, she allowed her arm to drop, turning towards the top of the stars where her teacher was currently standing, leaning against the row of wooden pillars that cutt of the room from the stairs.

"Could you stop doing that?" she asked, wiping the brush off on a piece of tishue paper lying on top of the end-table she'd stationed next to the easel.

The amusement was clear on her teacher's features.

"Do what?" he asked, though she could hear the trace of a chuckle in his voice.

"Enter without knocking." Tsuna answered with a light groan, turning back to her work with delicate strokes between the many shades of colors.

"Where's the fun in that?" Reborn asked from behind her, not even bothering to hide his own chuckle.

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna lifted her brush before glancing at her teacher from over her shoulder.

"I hate you sometimes." She muttered.

"I'm well aware." Reborn ansered, still chuckling.

Sighing, Tsuna put her brush down on the end-table before turning around fully towards her teacher.

"Was there a particular reason why you came up here?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and threw her one leg over the other as she leaned back in her chair, looking up at her teacher with a rather bored expression. "Other than to tease me or course?"

For a long moment, Reborn just looked at her.

He looked at her for such a long silent moment that Tsuna started to find herself quite uncomfortable. Her arms fell away from her chest, her now hovering foot once again connecting to the floor beneath them as she leaned forward, still looking at her tutor as she grabbed the sides of the seat.

"What are you looking at?" she asked him, looking through her eyebrows.

For a moment, Reborn just blinked, before a small smirk formed on his lips.

"Nothing." He finally answered. "Nothing at all."

* * *

 ** _May 29_**

 ** _Friday 2215_**

History…

It was a strange class that actually took part in the most video-watching of all the classes Tsuna's plowing herself through, with each class showing a part of one documentary after the other featuring energetic and passionate historians that are capable of relaying the dug-up facts of the world in the most interesting ways.

At the moment, Tsuna's class were delving into the history of the United Kingdom, they haven't gotten much further than the Tudor period, and currently, the subjest of interest was on Henry the 8th and his many wives, and for the first time, Tsuna's class had been assigned to go off on their own and gather their own research surrounding the old king.

It was only by luck that so many documentaries and artifacts were immediately rushed to underground storage-houses when the distruction of the third world-war was prooving to be too much, and thus, most of the national treasures and knowledge of the world was preserved for the later generations.

The second class had ended that day, Tsuna had scurried towards the library where the information chips were stored. She'd already gathered up quite a few she felt she needed for the project she'd already thought up in her head, but she felt like she needed the one more chip.

But why did it have to be so high up on the shelves?

The ladder was an old thing, rickedy, the lock was faulty, and she could have sworn that one of the steps almost broke under her weight as she ascended. She had her hands burried deep inside the drawer where the inventory had said she would find the portraits of the old monarchs of Brittain when it happened.

The ladder was pushed from under her weight, the little there was.

She'd made great progress where her balance was concerned, and yet, at that moment, her mind went blank, and before she knew it, she was falling.

The scream that had torn it's way through her throat was cut short when, instead of hitting the hard concrete floor, her fall was broken when she was caught by a pair of arms, a pair of subtly muscular arms that felt strangely warm through the fabric of her uniform. The arm under the fold of her knees almost burned.

Thankfully, it didn't come from her.

Her training must have been enough for her flames to not have flared up at her brief stab of fear, and it was a breath of relief.

Slowly, she opened the eyes she hadn't realized she'd closed, and she found herself staring into the sharp olive-green eyes of one Gokudera Hayato.

He looked the strange combination of shock and annoyance.

"T-thank you…" she stuttered, her hands still clutched at her chest as she stared into those eyes, seemingly unable to look away from that piercing gaze.

Rolling his eyes, Gokudera gently settled Tsuna back down on the ground, her hands finding his biseps as her feet touched down, his hands remaining on her until she'd regained her balance, he growned as he did so.

"Are you just, prone to accidents or something?" he asked darkly.

"Yes…" Tsuna found herself answering before she had the chance to stop herself. "K-kind of…" she rubbed at the fabric covering her forwards, strategically keeping her eyes away from the young man.

For a moment, Gokudera just stared at her, she could feel his eyes digging into her skin.

Finally, he spoke.

"I can't believe you're the one…" he muttered, causing her attention to snap back towards him.

"T-the what?" she found herself asking.

He didn't answer her, in stead, he turned around, disappearing through the shelves of drawers, weaving through the small crowd of students that had gathered at the sound of her screams, they looked between the two of them, then, finally, they filtered away from the scene, leaving Tsuna standing on her own, her skin feeling as though it was on fire.

* * *

It was no use to try and grasp for her core, but Tsuna did still meditate, clearing her thoughts and emotions so that she could feel everything going on inside of her body. The pulsing of her heart, the pulsing of her core even though she couldn't reach for it.

That, caused a question to pop into her head.

Opening her eyes, she wasn't at all surprised to see Reborn already in the room, leaning against the wall and observing her with his "other eyes" as obvious at the tell tale yellow glow to his irises.

The second he noticed her opening her eyes, the glow vanished.

"If I could reach my core, what will happen then?" she asked, unfolding her legs out from under her to allow her feet to fall to the floor.

"You learn how to stop it." Reborn quickly answered, stepping away from the wall. "If you can stop it, you can start it, and if you start it, you flood your system with the energy." As he spoke, he walked up to her bed, ending the sentence with him sitting down next to his student on the matress, a strange twinkle in his eyes. A strange thing indeed considdering the usual soullessness they usually had. "There are actually a few people in the world that have managed to get controll over their physical hearts."

Tsuna's eyes widened.

"You're kidding…" she mumbled.

"I most certainly am not." Reborn countered. "They can walk around without their hearts actually beating in their chests."

Blinking, it took some time before Tsuna could actually bring herself to talk.

"How…?" she actually couldn't finish her thought.

"Don't ask, you don't wanna know." Reborn answered her unfinished question, a small grimace forming on his face. "It's quite unpleasant."

"But you know." Tsuna teased, eyes narrowed to match her crocked smirk.

"Of course I know." Reborn answered with a cocky sort of straightening of his shoulders.

The action almost forced Tsuna to roll her eyes, leaning back to brace her weight against the matress, looking at the back of her tutur's head.

"Have you figured out how to help me with this?" she asked, knowing that the man would understand what she meant without her having to elabourate on it.

"I have a few options in mind." He answered almost immediately. "But I'm going to do some further research into each one before we can try one of them out." He glanced at her from the corner of the eye, his eyes flashing yellow for a brief moment. "Don't want to take any unnessesary risks."

A thought was immediately spiked in Tsuna's mind.

"Are these methods past methods to force people to awaken their own Anima?" she asked, rising herself back up to have a better look at her teacher's face, just as a small smirk spread across his face.

"You caught onto that huh?" he chuckled. "Yes." Came the answer before he turned fully towards her. "Only it was soon discovered that one cannot be forced to awaken without facing dire consequences if worst comes to worst." The smirk was still there despite the rather gruesome subject. "And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

Sighing heavily, Tsuna allowed herself to fully fall back onto the matress, arms thrown out among her sheets.

"What will I do now?" she asked, staring up at her ceiling.

Suddenly, Reborn rose from the bed, stalking towards the stairs and bending down towards the step just below their floor. Tsuna raised herself back up just as she observed Reborn pull a surprisingly thick book from where he'd hidden it when he'd stepped into her room.

Now, she watched him as he walked back towards her, holding out the book towards her.

It was a worn old thing of patched light brown leather with carved leather cover, it looked as though it the carving had been painted once upon a time but now that color had long since faded.

"Why don't you read up on the glyphs?" Reborn asked.

Slowly, Tsuna took the fragile-looking book from her teacher's hand, allowing her hand to run over the carved cover before she allowed herself to actually open it.

It was the doodles.

The doodles she'd been drawing for weeks covered the yellowish pages, along with lines upon lines of writing. But of course, the writing weren't in Japanese, but in Italian.

Of course it was in Italian.

"You do seem to have a surprising affinity for them." Reborn continued, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he watched his young student slowly flip through the pages of his gift, absolutely awestruck at what she was seeing.

"What are these?" she asked, voice at barely more than a whisper.

"Something that we should not disguss whilst you're still learning." Came Reborn's immediate answer, forcing his students attention away from the curious symbols on the pages.

It took a great long time before Tsuna almost slammed the book cover closed, her eyes narrowing in irritation.

"Fine…" Tsuna relented with a short growl.

* * *

 **A/N: This has been quite the challenge for me to write, I don't know why but I lost interest in what I was writing for a while and had to work on something else before I managed to get back on track.**

 **Again, I ask that you give me feedback on this, questions are very much welcome. The next chaper is actually already finished but I shall not upload it until I've received feedback on this one, to know what you think and keep me writing on the chapter that follows.**

 **I'm sorry if I come off as a little evil.**

 **No wait… I am not.**

 **I love you all to bits and pieces.**

 **This has been:**

 **A message from her ladyship.**


	13. Scene 13: Afternoon Encounters

**A/N: Oh! I can't hold this gem from you any longer, I just can't!**

 **This chapter holds one of the many scenes that I have been absolutely dying to write ever since I first thought them up, so much so that I completed this chapter before I completed chapter 11.**

 **I hope you like it just as much as I do.**

* * *

 **Scene 13:**

 **Afternoon Encounter**

 ** _June 1_**

 ** _Monday 2215_**

Once again, Tsuna found herself wandering to school the next morning, mind almost drowning in thoughts of what had happened to her desk. She'd barely spoken at supper, her mind realing with each possibility.

Was it the make of the ink?

Was it the material the ink was made from?

Was it something the ink had been exposed to?

The questions kept on piling up concerning everything where the ink was concerned. Soon enough, when Reborn finally decided to answer her questions, she'd be handing him a book full of them for him to answer.

If he would answer them at all.

She was walking through the school when three voices caught her interest.

"Look, it's Dame-Tsuna." One of them whispered just as she passed by their little group, she didn't bother pausing, in fact, she had to stop herself from hurrying her steps along until she rounded the corner, and it wasn't until then that she stopped, leaning against the wall as she continued to listen in on their conversation.

"Didn't she look kind of… worn out?" one of them asked, sounding surprisingly conserned.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't, haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?"

Tsuna was wondering that too.

She didn't like to involve herself in the rumour-mill of the school, they were mostly just rubbish, but she did want to know what they were saying about her.

"Well." Came the voice that had spoke when she walked past them. "Apparently, Mochida-sempai attacked her on her way home from school a few days ago." Well, it was rather obvious that they would know about that.

She'd always attracted attention she didn't want.

"Really?" another voice sounded sceptical. "I heard he raped her."

Tsuna couldn't help to roll her eyes at their words.

Raped?

Not on her life.

"Seriously?" a third voice piped in.

"Yes!"

"I have a friend in her class." The second voice spoke up. "And apparently, Dame-Tsuna had a nervous breahdown last Wednesday when she saw his face during P.E."

One of them let out a long sigh.

"Who knows what he did to her."

"That bastard!"

Tsuna found herself shocked at the exclamation.

"Guy's, this is Dame-Tsuna we're talking about."

"Are you saying she deserve to be raped?"

Again, Tsuna was shocked.

Was she really hearing this, it couldn't be true.

"No… I'm saying that-"

"It doesn't matter what you mean, and it doesn't matter who Mochida-sempai did it too. The fact that he touched a girl without her consent is despicable!"

"Tsuna has had enough shit thrown at her anyway, she doesn't need rapists after her as well."

"And now, Mochida-sempai is dating Sasagawa-Chan."

"Should we do something about it?"

"We will." The voice answered.

"I say we revoke Mochida-sempai's man priveleges!"

She couldn't keep listening any longer, and so, she quickly turned around and hurried down towards her homeroom. Mind absolutely reeling.

The minds of the students had changed quite a bit, it was too shocking for words.

* * *

Getting home from school that day, Tsuna was more or less emotionally exhausted.

Stepping in through the front door, almost throwing her bag to the floor as she went, she wanted little more than to take off her shoes and then retreat into her bedroom where she could fall onto her bed, sink into her sheets where she could clear her mind, allowing her emotions to finally recouperate after such a long day, but as her luck would have it, she couldn't have that.

"Tsuna-chan?" Nana called out as she stepped into the foyer, peeking her head through the door just as Tsuna bent down to undo the laces of her shoes. "Don't take your shoes off."

The words struck over Tsuna like a whip.

Stiffly, Tsuna raised her head to look up at her mother, much like one would look up at the face of the devil.

"Why…?" she asked slowly.

A piece of paper held between the index and middle-finger of a hand very much like Tsuna's own was stuck out through the door, the rest of Nana still very much within the kitchen, why that was, Tsuna didn't know.

"I need a few things for dinner." Nana answered, waving the piece of paper in the air, mockingly in Tsuna's eyes.

How she wished she had control over her power, then she could render that offending piece of trash to ashes with hopefully, a snap of her fingers.

"Mom…" Tsuna almost breathed as she raised herself up from the floor, her fingers twitching at the sides of her small body as she stared at the paper. "I just got back."

"Yes." Nana answered immediately. "And you're the one who still has her shoes on." She flicked the paper towards her daughter, who immediately caught it despite the wind resistance given to it, showing off just how many times the woman had flicked a paper before. "Now hop to it."

The paper crinkled in her hand as her fingers tightened around it.

Groaning, Tsuna threaded her arm through the straps of the bag she'd just allowed to drop to the floor, her back already turned towards her mother so that the woman wouldn't have to see just how exhausted Tsuna was, how little she wanted to leave the house.

"I'll be back in about an hour…" she said in stead, swallowing her growl.

And with that said, she was out the door, storming down the stairs and out the gate, allowing the growl to escape her once she was sure that she was several meters away from her own house.

Half-way towards the convenience store, Tsuna made the decision that she was going to endulge herself that afternoon, not even bothering to look at the list she'd been given until she'd passed through the automatic sliding doors.

* * *

She'd underestemated her mother.

That was the thought that ran through her head as she painstakingly shifted the three large paper bags in her arms, wondering what her moter would need all of those things for. Really, she could swear that most of the things weren't even for her mother.

She wouldn't be surprised if Reborn hadn't butted into the list, adding his own things.

And now, she'd added her own things to the list of things, and how she was seriously starting to berate herself for her earlier decision. She'd only walked for about five minutes, and she'd already started to feel the weight full at her now untrained arms.

She was wandering through the park, the only shortcut she knew of that would take her home during the shortest time. For the safe of her arms, she hoped that the trip really would take ten minutes less than usually.

Just as Tsuna was about to turn the corner around a concrete wall sealing in a very steap hill when a distinct set of voices reached her ears, freezing her blood in her veins.

"Not feeling so superior now, do we?" a gruff voice laughed, closely followed by another set of punches and kicks. Not many people would have heard it unless one really listened for it, but Tsuna was capable of picking up the small, almost unnoticable, gasps of pain that followed each one of those hits.

The sound alone would have been enough to throw Tsuna back to that moment in the alley, but there was something anchoring her mind back in reality.

It was Gokudera.

One would have thought that he was the one felivering the punches, but no, he was the one in the middle of th circle of delinquents, receiving punch, after punch, after kick. She stared at him as he just took everything, barely showing anything on his handsome face.

She couldn't leave him like that.

Despite how creepy he'd been with his almost consistant staring, he'd still been kind to her in his own way, and something like that, deserved to be rewarded.

Biting her bottom lip, Tsuna turned back to hide behind the concrete wall, eyes wandering around her surroundings until they landed on a bench not too far away from her.

Quickly, Tsuna rushed towards the bench, dropping her bags down as gently as she could despire the rush she was in. Once satisfied that the bags would not fall over, she rushed back to the corner, peeking around towards the group as she fished her gem out from her pocket, desperate fiddling with it searching for the right functions.

It had been a precation, something that she'd never believed she'd actually get to use, but here she were, opening the app and activating it as she stared at the laughing delinquents.

* * *

Suddenly, the sound of the police-department's sirens sounded through the air, the volume slowly rose, closing in on where the delinquents were standing.

"The fuzz!" one of the gang called out, sending the whole group into a frenzy, scurrying from the scene as quickly as possible, leaving their beaten victim on the ground.

Shocked, the transfer student looked around in search of the sound, clutching at a spot on his left forearm as he painstakingly lifted himself off of the ground, obviously planning on running away as well.

Only, the sirens suddenly cut off.

"It worked." A small voice spoke up from around the corner of the concrete wall, Gokudera watched in shock as that fragile girl stepped out from around the corner, gem firmly clutched within her fingers as she slowly made her way towards him. "Are you alright?"

She sounded genuine, she sounded actually worried, and that only made the young man all the more angry with her.

"What are you doing here?" he almost growled as she grouched down in front of him, wide eyes wandering over his beat up body.

He did not like being seen like this.

She didn't seem at all put off at his angry response.

"Grocery run." She answered quickly, voice quiet as she carefully leaned over towards him, he carefully leaned away, looking back at her in a mix of caution and anger, though to him, it was funny how she seemed to keep her eyes firmly trained on his obvious injuries, never allowing her gaze to wander anywhere private.

It was strange to him.

"You're bleeding." Her voice came out once again, knocking him out of his thoughts.

Gokudera found himself rolling his eyes at her wide "worried" eyes, fingers clenching around the cut on his upper left bisep.

"I noticed that you idiot." He growled, glaring at her. "That's what happens when you're slashed by a knife."

The look he got as a response was quite a surprise.

All worry suddenly wiped off of the girl's half-hidde doll-like features, morphing into something that looked very out of place on her face. Before he knew what hit him, she had given him a deadpanned look that spoke so very, very clearly:

"You don't say?"

It only remained for a few seconds before her expression returned to worry, so quickly in fact that Gokudera had to wonder if he'd imagined the brief apparent break from her character.

A small hand closing around his wrist snapped him out of his thoughts once again.

"We need to get that treated." The girl said, rising up from the ground, dragging him along with her, both up from the asphalt but also back from where she'd stepped out from, rounding the corner and straight over to a bench where three large bags sat rather haphazardly. There, the tiny girl shoved him down next to the groceries.

He didn't have the time to do or say anything as the doll started to digg through her bag.

"Take off your shirt." She ordered.

Ordered. She actually ordered him to do something, not one quiver in her voice as he'd heard as an almost permanent feature in her tone.

"What?" was as much as Gokudera could respond with.

"Just the outer one will do." She kept talking, still with that stable tone that was really starting to grate on his nerves. He would have started talking again had be not seen just what it was that the girl was pulling out of her bag.

A first-aid kit.

Why would she have a first-aid kit with her on a grocery run?

Sighing, Gokudera released his hand from his red hoodie, biting down on his tung to keep himself from grunting in pain as he peeled the garment from his battered body, balling it up into his lap, the question as to how the girl knew that he was wearing something under the hoodie playing in his head.

He tried to not look at her as the girl worked, smearing paste over the bruises forming over his skin, cleaning the slash on his bisep with her handkerchief that she'd dampened at the water fountain not too far away from them. He sat there for several minutes, subjecting himself to the surprisingly careful and gentle touches of the girl's tiny hands waiting for the moment where she would finally, finally, she apply that thin strip of thick, store-bought bio-fabric over the slash, the strip that she'd already set aside.

"You're surprisingly used to this." He commented as she sprayed the slash with a disinfecrant that doubled as a coegelant aid.

"Of course you would be." The girl scoffed, inspecting the slash, dabbing away the access spray from the surrounding skin. "You don't know me." He finally looked to her as she removed the handkerchief, lifting the strip of bio-fabric and gently applied it over the now furiously tingling wound. "There." She whispered, brushing her fingers over the strange bulge on his bisep. "That should do it."

As the girl stuffed her first-aid kit back into her bag, Gokudera studied the work she'd done.

It was good work.

Really good work.

He could have never done anything as good as she'd just done in what could have been just over ten minutes. Deffinately not on his own.

He watched as the girl stood up again, wandering back to the water fountain fitted into the concrete wall.

After a moment of thought, he followed her.

"Alright…" he spoke up, staring at the girl's small back, watching as she stiffened, spinning around to face him with a small amount of fear in her eyes.

Now that he had been treated, whatever had possessed the girl was obviously gone.

* * *

Tsuna watched as the anger seeped into the young man's face, wringing the handkerchief between her hands before she hastely stuffed it into her bag, waiting for the young man to start talking again.

Only when he did, she wished he hadn't.

"What do you want from me?" he asked, stepping up to her and looking her dead in the eyes, face twisted in fury.

The question caught her off guard.

"I'm sorry?" she asked right back, tilting her head in obvious confusion.

This only seemed to anger him even more.

Growling, Gokudera brought up his hands, twisting his long fingers into his bright silver hair and ruffled it violently, sending shining tendrils flying all over the place.

Finally, he locked eyes with her again.

"I'm asking you what you thought you'd get out of me by doing this!"

The shove had been sudden, Tsuna hadn't had the time to brace herself before she suddenly found her back crashing into the concrete wall behind her, Gokudera's hands landing on either side of her head, locking her in. his olive-green eyes glared down at her, making use of his superiror height.

Not that that was a hard feat to accomplish.

"Did you expect me to declare my lifelong loyalty to you?" Gokudera rolled his eyes at the apparent stupidity of his own words, silently clarifying that his layalty was something that he himself considdered, hard earned. "Did you think that you've be able to score a favor from me?" his eyes narrowed suddenly as he kept them pinned on her. "Of better yet…" the corner of his mout twitched into a small, half-hearted smirk, and suddenly…

He leaned in.

"What are you-?" Tsuna was cut short when she felt something soft and featherlight touch her neck.

The feel of his lips against one of the most tender parts of her already sensitive skin sent a wave of shock through her body, freezing her in place.

He was kissing her neck…

Why was he kissing her neck!?

Gokudera's mouth parted from her skin, although he still kept his face hovering close enough for her to feel every single individual breath that escaped him, brushing over her, sending shivers running down her spine.

She could feel her own breath coming out in laboured huffs.

She had never been this close to a member of the opposite gender before, one that wasn't her father that is, and deffinately not like this.

Gokudera's naturally gravely voice came out as barely more than a whisper, successfully forcing Tsuna out of her stupor.

"Did you think that in doing what you did…" Tsuna felt his breaths moving up her neck, pressing another kiss at her jaw, his hand moving her hair from the side of her face as her own hands clenched against the concrete from the tingles flooding through her syster. His mouth now hovered against her ear. "That I would feel so indepted to you that I would take you to my bed if you asked for it?"

Tsuna's eyes widened, a gasp escaping from her lips as the meaning of the blunt statement finally sunk into her already frozen mind, as well as the realization as to why he had reached that conclution in the first place.

He was speaking from experience.

Just how many people had he encountered that wanted nothing more than a favor or two from him, or even just to share a night in his bed?

The thought disgusted Tsuna on so many levels.

Just how low had humanity sunk?

Gokudera however, must have taken her gasp as a form of confirmation of his theory as he immediately pulled away from her ear, in stead opting to hover just a few inches away from her face, a dark, humourless chuckle forcing itself trough his throat as he locked his eyes with hers once more.

For a moment, they just stared into each other's eyes, then Gokudera opened his mouth once again.

"I thought so."

Before Tsuna had the time to properly register what was happening, Gokudera had closed the distance between them and successfully sealed her lips with his, pressing her body even closer up against the concrete with his chest.

Shocked at the action, Tsuna's brain ceased to function for an embarassingly long time.

Here she was, pressed up against a concrete wall in the local park, having her first kiss stolen by the school's transfer student that had become one of the heart-throbs within seconds upon his arrival.

This couldn't be happening!

She didn't know exactly what finally snapped her out of the shock. Was it the feel of his muscled chest pressing into her front? No, that had only muddled her up even further… was it when his hands landed on her waist? Erm… no, but the burning sensation that spread through her body at the touch had been pretty close. If she had to pick one moment when she finally got her mind back, it would have to be when she felt something wet brushing against her bottom lip.

Oh no, he was NOT going to jam his tung down her throat.

NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

With as much strength as she could muster, Tsuna jammed her hands into Gokudera's surprisingly strong shoulders, only sparing one second to take note of how they felt under her palms before she violently shoved him away from her.

She must have been running on adrenalin because the next thing she knew, her fist collided with the side of his stupidly handsome face.

She was shocked when the punch actually sent him stumbling away from her.

This time, Tsuna wasn't the only one shocked as Gokudera turned back towards her, seeing her staring at her fist in shock as the tips of his fingers brushed over the fresh cut on his lip, eyes wide.

She wasn't going to lie, Tsuna doesn't lie, she did feel a sick sort of pleasure at the knowledge that she'd been the one to injure the part of his body he had just assaulted her with.

No way was she going to do something to those hands, that would be too much.

Gokudera's olive-green eyes were practically burning with fury as he looked at her, a thin stream of blood pumping out of the cut.

"What the hell, you BITCH!" He roared, returning his hands to the cut.

Fire roared through her veins as anger took over.

"That should be MY reaction!" Tsuna threw right back at him, forcing herself to keep calm as to not loose controll over the flames.

She would NOT let them rule her again.

Her words only seemed to anger Gokudera even more.

He scoffed, throwing his hand away as he stalked up again.

"You mean to tell me that you DIDN'T want that to happen!?"

"That's exactly what I mean!" Tsuna shoved him away from her again, starting off back to the bench where she'd left her shopping.

This… seemed to confuse Gokudera.

"What?" he asked, his voice now considderably lower than before, lower than she'd ever heard him speak, and the fact that he sounded so bewildered managed to help her calm down enough to answer him in a much calmed manner than before.

"Look…" she started, taking a deep breath before she willed herself to continue. "I understand that you may have been through situations where someone have wanted what you just did to me, but I am not one of them." She turned back around, fishing up one of the three large paper bags that had been waiting for her on the bench.

"You expect me to believe that!?" Gokudera screamed at her back.

Bag still in her arms, Tsuna rounded on the newest edition to her class, rolling her eyes as she did.

"Why wouldn't you believe that?"

Immitating a growling tiger, or at least Tsuna felt like he was doing that, Gokudera marched right up to Tsuna again, staring down at her. Only this time, there was a thick barrier between them in the form of a large paper back and the notable lack of a large concrete wall to push her up against.

"I am well aware that I am considdered to be very attractive in the eyes of most around me."

"Modest much…" Tsuna really couldn't help the comment from slipping out in the form of a breathy whisper.

Thankfully for her, it didn't seem like Gokudera caught it.

Rolling his eyes, Gokudera gestured to Tsuna's whole body. Thankfully, Tsuna noticed that he appeared to be more focused on her face than anything else.

"A beautiful woman such as yourself shouldn't have any qualms about using any form of means to get to be with me at least ones, as it had happened on more than one occasion." He let out a long sigh, running his hand through his hair. "Our classmates are a clear example of this." He put his hands on his hips, turning just slightly away from her.

You'd think that Tsuna would have argued with his reasoning, but she was well aware of the actions the majority of her female classmates had taken to try and grab Gokudera's attention over the last few days alone.

At least, the actions of the girls that were well aware of their sexual appeal.

Deliberately falling in front of him to try and get him to catch them (never worked). Furiously batting their eyelashes to try and catch his attention (did indeed work in him asking them if their mascara was too heavy for them to keep their eyelids open). Or simply walking right up to his desk and talk to him (the glare they would then receive served to shut them up).

However, that was not what had caught Tsuna's attention.

"You think I'm beautiful?" her question came out as little more than a whisper, staring up at Gokudera in barely contained bewilderment.

Gokudera's eyebrows furrowed.

"You don't?"

Tsuna let out a sigh, picking up the second bag from the bench, manouvering the first one to get a better hold of the other.

"I'm comfortable with my appearance and body, I don't really care weather it's considdered beautiful or not." She glanced at Gokudera from the corner of her eyes as she contemplated how she was to get up the fird bag. "It's just that no one had ever really refered to me as such appart from my mother."

"No one?" the confusion was clear on Gokudera's voice.

"No."

Tsuna's attention had been locked onto the third bag. It had just been sitting there, mocking her with it's existance as it knew, it KNEW, that she wouldn't be able to pick it up.

Suddenly, another pair of hands reached out and grabbed that mocking piece of brown paper and lifted it up, forcing Tsuna to move her attention away from it.

There stood Gokudera, holding out the bag in front of him, waiting for Tsuna to take it from his hands.

"Then they must be blind."

It took an embarassingly long time before Tsuna got to moving her hands from under the other two bags, making enough room for the third one as she kept her eyes firmly locked onto Gokudera's face.

"You know…" she said, once she finally had all three bags securely in her arms. "If you don't want to be roped into sexual favors, you really shouldn't compliment people like that."

"If effects you?" Gokudera's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at her.

"Who wouldn't be?" with that said, Tsuna turned and started off down the path she knew would lead her home, only she didn't get that far before she heard Gokudera calling after her.

"Hey!" he screamed, only she chose to ignore it, not wanting to know what she could possibly want this time. "You never did answer my question!" this did her pause, turning just a bit towards him. "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing." Tsuna sighed with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, I don't believe that." The growl was back in Gale's voice, his hands jammed into his pockets as he glared at her.

"Believe what you will, but I still won't ask anything from you." And with that said, she turned back around and kept on walking, this time not stopping until she was at her front door.

* * *

Gokudera remained standing there, staring after the curious girl as she disappeared down the road, carrying those ridiculously large bags of hers, messy hair barely bobbing in the gentle breeze as she disappeared from sight.

"What do you think?" a deep voice spoke up from his side.

Gokudera couldn't help but to scoff at the man's words.

"You're kidding right?" he asked, still staring at the disappearing figure, refusing to phusically acnowledge the presense of the man. "She'll die within hours!" this time however, his tone rang false, even to his own ears.

The man laughed at the obvious falsehood to his words.

"Don't be so quick to judge." The man chuckled. "Take some time to observe her."

Observe her.

He'd been doing little else than observing her for the past couple of days, and yet he still couldn't discover anything particularly interesting or even strong about the girl. He'd seen her interact with the people around her as cautoustly as possible and barely speaking at all. In fact, the most character he'd seen her express in all the time he'd known of her, had been in the past couple of minutes where she'd refused to take no for an answer.

She was stubborn at least.

"Fine…" Gokudera finally relented, still not looking at the man. "But this better be worth it."

The man laughed again, and Gokudera could imagine the man shaking his head.

"I wouldn't have summoned you, if it wasn't." with that said, Gokudera could feel the presence vanish from his side, and when he actually turned to look, he was correct to find that he was now standing alone in the park.

Sighing, Gokudera stuffed his hands into his pockets, shaking his head of all thoughts of the strange doll-like girl, only it didn't work.

He could still feel his mouth tingling from when it had been connected with hers, and he couldn't for the life of him understand why. The only thing that tingled more than his mouth was the bruise he knew for a fact was already forming on his face from where she'd hit him, the memory of her shocked face at her own action already semi-permanently etched into his mind.

She said she wouldn't ask anything of him.

The thought of that made him scoff.

"She's one hell of an actress." He whispered to himself as he started off on his own road towards the appartment he'd bought for his stay in Namimori. "I'll give her that."

* * *

Stepping into the house carrying the heavy bags, Tsuna was thankfully relieved of most of the weight when her mother rushed into the room.

"Tsuna-chan!?" Nana called out, immediately running up to grab two of the bags from Tsuna's arms, though she still kept talking to her as she moved them towards the kitchen. "Where have you been?"

Tsuna clutched at the bag as she rather clumsily manouvered herself through the doorway.

"I ran into a classmate on the way back." She answered her mother as she sat down the bag on the counter with a relieved groan.

"Oh, alright then." Nana answered, blinking in brief bewilderment at her daughter's answer.

She'd been kept back because she'd met a classmate, and she didn't have one bruise on her and not showing any sign of pain asside from her exhaustion from carrying three heavy bags for quite a long while. It was new.

Quickly, she pulled herself from these thoughts.

"Did Reboyama-sensei find you?" she asked, hands already moving to unpack the bags.

This gave Tsuna a moment of pause.

"No…" she answered slowly, giving her mother a questioning look.

This made Nana frown.

"That's odd…" she mumbled, removing a carton of eggs from the bag she was working through, checking it's contents before setting it down on the counter. "When you weren't home when you said you'd be, I sent out Reboyama-sensei to fetch you."

Tsuna frowned at this, an almost identical expression to that of her mothers.

If the man had went out to look for her, why hadn't he?

* * *

Turns out, the man would return to the house first after the two women had already packed away everything that Tsuna had bought, but the second he'd stepped in through the doors, he'd given Tsuna a secretive little smirk before disappearing up towards his own room, having already taken off his shoes by the time the two women stepped out of the kitchen.

Now this annoyed Tsuna more than she was willing to admit.

The teacher had just done what she had wanted to do when she'd gotten home from school but soon found that her mother had other plans for her. She'd gone out to carry heavy bags, save a classmate from beaing beaten up only to find that he was less than grateful, not to mention having her first kiss stolen.

Her mouth tingled of the memory, the sight of Gokudera's face so close to her own, the smell of his cologne, all little details that were now permanently etched into her mind.

One never forgets one's first kiss, and hers had now been stolen.

"Tsuna-chan?" Nana asked from her side. "What's wrong?"

Tsuna turned to look at her mother, for once in her life, actually tempted to tell her exactly what had happened while she was out, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. While it may not have been a memory she'd been planning to make that night, it was one that she'd been preparing herself for one way or the other for quite a long time.

"Nothing." She answered simply, walking back to the counter to pick up her own bag of things, finding the significantly lighter load to be quite blissful as she began the journey up the stairs, well aware of her mothers eyes trailing behind her.

Once again, she was leaving her mother with a list of questions in her wake, but Tsuna knew for certain, that it wouldn't be the last time.

* * *

 **A/N: And there you have it, the work that has been done long before the last one was, and also the chapter that I had been looking forwart to writing for a long, long time.**

 **Again, I ask of you to leave your thoughts concerning this chapter, not just one-word comments but actual thoughts. And please, for the love of everything good in this universe, do not leave comments on my spelling or type-o's, I am already well aware that there are such things in here, and I will deal with them when the entire fic is finished, a time when I hopefully have a computer with a writing program sporting an actually functioning spell-check system.**

 **I know you probably think you're helping me by pointing out all the errors but they just put me down from writing in general, so please do not mention something that I have already said I think two chapters now, I should not have to repeat myself at the end of every single chapter.**

 **I love you humans, I do, but one can only stomach comments on spell-check so many times before they almost throw their phones into the wall.**

 **I will be back with the next chapter whenever I can.**

 **This has been:**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	14. Scene 14: Confused Argument

**A/N: I don't think I have ever been sorrier for a delay.**

 **I actually had a pretty terrible time working as a cashier that seriously drained me emotionally, I didn't want to write anything for a while and then my interest refused to allow me to write on this because of one international phenomenon.**

 **BTS.**

 **The group caught me in August and refused to let go. They still haven't let go but I've gotten so used to them and their songs that I'm not allowed to write on something completely different whilst still being hooked on them.**

 **I sound like I'm on drugs, but that's kinda the effect they have on people!**

 **Anyway. I took the time to do some fine-tuning on the outline and further plan a bit into the second act and I can say I'm very pleased with the result.**

 **This will be a shorter chapter than usual, but I'm happy with it.**

* * *

 **Scene 14:**

 **Confused Argument**

 _ **June 2**_

 _ **Tuesday 2215**_

Tsuna's mouth had been tingling throughout the whole night, even when she woke up, her skin still prickles where his hands had touched her in such a rough manner. She recalled being quite surprised as she got ready for bed when there was no bruising, usually, they would form if she so much as bumped her hip on the side of her desk.

The moment had filled her head the whole morning. She was aware that her mother had tried to talk to her that morning, but Tsuna had been too dazed, and maybe sleep deprived to really respond to anyone, even Reborn.

She's walked to school in something of a trance, her hands fumbling with her fingers, the hem of her cardigan, the straps of her bag, anything she could fiddle with really, she would be fiddling with.

Each step she took was slow and tentative as she moved towards home-room.

* * *

Tsuna settled down at her desk, allowing her head to fall into her arms where she's folded them over the touch-screen desk. She kept the breathy groan from escaping from her throat as she desperately kept her eyes open, not wanting to fall asleep before class started.

She was absolutely exhausted from the little sleep she'd gotten that night. Usually, she could fall asleep as easily as sinking into a warm bath, but that night it just wouldn't work. The knowledge that her first kiss had been stolen that way by a somewhat stranger, a man that has acted as though he would force himself on her completely if the strength of his grip had been anything to go by, but her turmoil wasn't from the kiss itself.

It was from how easily she'd gotten him to stop.

Of all the people to have done that to her, it just had to be that guy.

If it had been someone like Mochida Kensuke, she'd have just brushed it away to the far corners of her mind, blocking the memory like she'd done with so many others things the past decade.

But Gokudera Hayato wasn't like Mochida Kensuke at all.

Some might reach the conclusion that they were with the way Gokudera had a tendency to look at people, heck, most might suspect that Gokudera was even worse than Mochida.

Tsuna knew better.

Mochida wouldn't have backed off with a push, and definitely not after a punch to the face.

Now, she was left not knowing how she was supposed to deal with the situation, how she was supposed to handle being in the same class as the man that had stolen her first kiss.

Still, she couldn't hold any ill feelings towards the man.

It must have been her combined deep thoughts and her lack of sleep that'd done it, that had caused her to completely miss the commotion at the door.

That is until she heard one of them scream.

"What do you mean I can't go in!?"

The sudden sound of the voice of the man that has haunted her for the past two weeks made Tsuna almost jump out of her chair, her head automatically lowering to bury her face into the surface of the desk, throwing her hands over her head in an attempt to make her signature messy hair as unnoticeable as possible.

All this happened within the span of one second.

After a moment, she allowed herself to tilt her head towards the open door to the classroom, glancing through the gap in her arm at the small group that had gathered there.

And there he stood.

Mochida Kensuke, looking over the classmates standing in his way with absolute anger in those dark, haunting eyes that still serves to ignore the tingles in the tips of her fingers.

Three students of the Athletic division was keeping the fencing captain from getting into the room. All three from the wrestling club and thus, very big, muscular people that almost looked like a wall in between him and the rest of the class.

"Just that." one of the wrestlers answered, crossing his arms over his chest, flexing his large muscles in warning.

Mochida was not intimidated.

"This is a free country, and I want to see my girlfriend!" he screamed right back at her classmates, most likely spitting him in the face with how close they were standing.

"Well she doesn't want to see you!" the classmate screamed right back, most likely giving Mochida the same treatment that the athlete had just given him.

Mochida wiped his face before he shouted right back.

At this moment, Tsuna could feel her ears ringing, she hadn't even noticed that Fujitaka had moved in front of her during the shouting match, successfully hiding her head from the watchful suspicious eyes of Mochida Kensuke.

"Who are you to say that!?"

The shouting match probably would have continued, had a smaller figure with bright silver hair not picked that very moment to step up to the door, his bored yet annoyed voice filtering in through the tension in the air.

"You're in the way."

Tsuna really couldn't explain the strange feeling that washed over her at the sight of the delinquent, his uniform worn in the same nonconventional way as he always did, his eyes narrowed at Mochida as he waited for the man to respond.

The wrestlers immediately parted, Gokudera having received enough reputation in the short time he'd been there to know not to mess with the man, but apparently, Mochida had not gotten that particular message quite yet.

There was one thing was different about Gokudera's appearance though, something that the girls in the class immediately started raging about.

But not Tsuna.

She couldn't help but feel a small sense of pride bloom in her stomach at the sight of the young man's face, even though she also felt a sense of guilt.

He had a bruise.

A nice, dark bruise blooming over the side of his face.

A bruise that she'd put there.

Mochida Master's scream of absolute anger brought her out of her thoughts, obviously a TINY bit miffed that someone had the guts to walk up to him in his current temper.

Just how spoiled was that guy?

"What did you say!?" Mochida screamed in Gokudera's face.

Gokudera didn't even flinch, his expression remaining absolutely indifferent with a little more than a hint of annoyance in those narrowed eyes.

"You're blocking the doorway," Gokudera answered, his gravely voice sending shivers running down Tsuna's spine, but they weren't nearly as unpleasant as they were with Mochida. "Move."

This only served to flare Mochida's temper.

No one had ever treated him that way before, he didn't know how to handle it.

"Why you…" he started.

Gokudera didn't let Mochida continue, the indifference giving way to his annoyance.

"You're not welcome." Gokudera almost growled, his eyes narrowing even further. "Scram."

It was quite funny how the dynamics between the two men looked to an observer, like Tsuna.

Gokudera was visibly shorter than Mochida, shorter than his personality would say he was, the young silver-haired teenager still managed to be beyond intimidating as he glared up at the athlete, olive eyes narrowed in annoyance.

Tsuna couldn't help herself.

She mentally drew a connection between the way Gokudera was currently looking at Mochida, to the way he'd looked at her that first week he'd been there. She couldn't for the life of her understand why he was doing it, but he definitely did.

Finally, the odds became obvious to Mochida, letting out a furious growl before leaving the entrance to the classroom, the sounds of his furious punches to the hallway walls echoing through the building back into the room.

Tsuna could feel herself visibly flinching with each punch that rang through the air.

Forcing herself to ignore the sounds, she instead focused on the man that was still in the doorway.

Tsuna's eyes followed Gokudera as he marched into the room in that usual lazy, hunched-backed manner, one hand firmly stuffed into his pocket as he reached his desk, throwing his bad on top of the piece of furniture before he himself dropped down into the chair, throwing his legs up like he always did.

Obviously, he didn't care if he accidentally broke the screen.

Without knowing it… Tsuna's hand rose up from where it had been hanging over the side of the desk, slowly moving up to her face where her fingertips landed gently on her suddenly furiously tingling lips.

She wasn't all that aware that she was doing it, and so, the suddenly furious glare the silver-haired man threw her way confused her greatly.

She was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn't notice Fujitaka looking at her from where he was still standing at her side.

* * *

Fujitaka had had his eyes almost firmly pinned on Sawada ever since Mochida had left. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he'd silently hoped that he'd get some form of recognition for shielding her from the man he could see scared her to the point of petrifaction.

However, the girl's attention seemed to be gravitating to the man that had made the man leave.

Fujitaka had been meaning to speak to her, to somehow capture her attention, but…

When she'd raised her hand to brush her fingertips over those plump light pink lips, his throat dried up, stopping him short.

Not only was the sight of those delicate fingers touching those soft lips enough to make him weak in the knees, but he couldn't help the dark thoughts that began to swim in his mind. He didn't want to think about what had caused the unconscious motion, he didn't want to think about what the tiny girl might be thinking about.

But he did notice how her eyes were pinned on the transfer student.

The thought's he got from the action wasn't good, the jealousy building up in his stomach as they only got worse.

Had Gokudera kissed the little angel?

Obviously, if the glare the delinquent had sent the tiny ballet dancer was anything to go by, the two of them weren't together, or even having met up for… he didn't want to think about it, but from the look on Sawada's face, there were no ill feelings on her part, which only made the almost dazed expression she was giving the half-Italian even worse!

Fujitaka found himself almost storming back to his desk, collapsing on his chair and his fingers clenching over the screen surface, a dark look forming in his eyes.

He'd been so focused on studying Sawada's actions and his own inner turmoil that he hadn't noticed the actions of his best friend.

Yuki looked at Fujitaka from a few seats to his right, leaning her chin into the palm of her hand as she gave him a long, sad look of resignation.

* * *

Yamamoto walks into the room oblivious to what had just gone on in the room, greeting each and every classmate like he always did.

He spotted Tsuna at her desk, noticing the seemingly dazed expression on her face, and gave a brief smile before a wider one replaced that one.

He sauntered over to his own desk, ignoring everyone's eyes following him as he put his hand on top of her head of the petite girl, giving her thick mess of hair a rough ruffle to capture her attention.

"Morning." he greeted with a loud voice.

Tsuna immediately knew that the happiness was faked.

* * *

The day had continued as though that earlier deviation from the regular school routine had never happened. The more she could feel his eyes digging into her back, the easier it was for Tsuna to slowly get over what Gokudera had done to her.

Her lips only lightly tingled now.

Obviously, the kiss wasn't as big of a deal to him than it had been for her.

She clutched at the straps of her bag as she made her way through the school after most of the students had already left. She usually did this, not wanting to get caught up in the flood streaming out of the building and "accidentally" get slammed into the lockers or even a wall.

Although, deliberately being slammed somewhere hasn't happened since the shooting incident.

She'd thought she was alone.

She shouldn't have passed anyone in the building this late in the day, the only ones still in the building should be the ones assigned to clubs.

And thus, it was all the more surprising when a hand suddenly shot out from around a corner, latched onto her wrist and yanked her towards them as they spun around, slamming her back against the wall in the span of a split second.

She didn't scream, she never screamed, she was too used to things like that happening to her to release any form of sound of surprise.

Thankfully, the person who crept up on her didn't see the need to physically pin her to the wall, pleased enough with having simply thrown her to the wall, no matter how many bruises would form on her skin by the time she was behind her bedroom door.

Slowly, she looked up and found herself pinned by something completely different.

The more than familiar olive green eyes fitted into an annoyingly handsome face sporting a colorful bruise on the side of his face the size of her tiny little fist.

"What do you want?" the man growled, sounding almost anxious, or even desperate in Tsuna's ears.

The words awakened a sense of annoyance in her, and coupled with the exhaustion already running through her body, created a surprising attitude that she didn't show to anyone other than her mother when the woman was particularly hard to handle.

"Not this again..." Tsuna found herself sighing out before she could really stop herself, eyes turning up towards the ceiling before she pushed herself off of the wall, continuing down the hallway.

She didn't get that far before she once again found herself with a hand wrapped around her wrist, only this time, the hand did not decide to push her up against the wall, thankfully.

"Yes, this again." Gokudera countered, yanked on her wrist enough to turn her around towards him so that he may look her in the eyes. "I owe you a dept," he stated, although he clearly wasn't comfortable reminding her of that fact. "And I intend to pay it."

For a brief moment, the two of them just stood there, neither of them at all comfortable with the subject they had found themselves on. Tsuna even shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she avoided the delinquents piercing eyes, licking her lips as she gathered up enough confidence to deliver her message once again.

Finally, she met his eyes once again and forced the words out.

"Well, I don't want anything from you." Tsuna once again stated, repeating the message she'd tried to deliver the day before, rolling her eyes in annoyance as she turned around, walking away from the delinquent in what she'd hoped would have been the end of the conversation.

Sadly, that was not the case.

A humorless laugh escaped the delinquent's mouth.

"Right." he chuckled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Because you're already sharing a bed with that baseball-idiot, aren't you?"

Tsuna froze in her steps, her fingers tightening around the straps of her bag as she slowly turned back around towards the guy that had kissed her the day before.

He believed that she and Yamamoto were sleeping together?

Her expression was apparently enough for Gokudera to realize that there was something he wasn't understanding about their current subject of conversation. There was a furrow of her eyebrow that was quite foreign on her face.

"What?" he asked, almost defensively.

"You do realize you stole my first kiss right?" Tsuna easily answered, sounding as though she was talking about something quite less significant as her sexual experience.

Finally, Gokudera was shocked.

His olive eyes were thrown wide open, his mouth slightly open and his face appeared to be somewhat paler than it already was as he looked at her, firmly pinned on her half-hidden face. She recognized the expression. He was looking for a lie.

Finally, he managed to get his voice working again.

"I did?" he asked slowly.

"Yes," Tsuna answered immediately, crossing her arms over her chest. "You did."

"Well, fuck..." Gokudera cursed, his fingers finding themselves tangled into his hair, frantically ruffling at the silver strands, sending them flying all over the place before he finally calmed down, the hair falling back into place before he let out a long breath, straightening out his back before sheepishly looking down at her. "Sorry."

Tsuna couldn't hide her shock at the words.

"Think nothing of it." she slowly replied with a gulp, her hand finding it's way to her hair to wind a lock of messy hair around her finger "I kind of figured that would happen."

Gokudera's eyebrows furrowed.

"You figured you'd lose your first kiss when assaulted?" he asked, watching as she slowly allowed her head to bob up and down in a nod of confirmation. Her non-verbal response seemed to anger him as he threw his hands out and raised his voice slightly, not enough to startle her, but enough for her to bring down her hand. "How does one figure that?"

Her eyes once again gravitated towards the ceiling, a sigh escaping her lips.

"When you've lived a life like mine." she slowly muttered, but she was sure that the newest addition to her class could hear her. "You just do."

For a long moment, there was nothing but silence between the two teens.

They weren't looking at one another, but Tsuna could tell that the annoyance was slowly creeping back onto Gokudera's face.

He was the one to break the uncomfortable silence.

"I don't get you," he muttered, almost as though he was trying to keep the growl from his voice, but no one can hide that kind of tone from someone that's basically heard it on a daily basis since she was in kindergarten. "You can look at me like I'm the most harmless person in the world and still run like a frightened chicken at the sight of the pathetic piece of D.N.A?" he didn't need to elaborate on who he was talking about.

Tsuna's hand once again found it's way to her hair.

One of these days, she would cause damage to her finger due to cutting off the blood circulation to that particular appendage.

"It's different with you." she finally allowed herself to answer.

Apparently, it wasn't the right one.

"How?" he almost screamed, sounding borderline desperate for her reason.

"You've never laid a harmful hand on me." came Tsuna's easy, truthful answer.

Whilst he had forced a kiss on her lips, it hadn't hurt, she hadn't been traumatized. If anything, she almost felt flattered to have been kissed by someone of such striking looks as the man in front of her, but those were thoughts she would never voice.

"I could." Gokudera immediately argued right back, sounding even more furious with her than he'd been before.

And he was right, she knew it was true, she'd felt it when she'd had his hands clutching at her body, the strength in his fingers on her skin, tangling up in the fabric of her clothes. He could have very easily pressed her up against that concrete wall and banged her head against it hard enough to cause her head to cave in with just the one strike.

"But you won't." Tsuna calmly argued right back, a small smile playing on her mouth. "I know you won't." she turned around, believing she'd won the argument.

She was good at reading people, she knew she was right.

And if Gokudera was the kind of person she knew him to be, he knew she was right.

She didn't get to walk that far.

 _ **CRASH!**_

Tsuna jumped at the sudden sound, spinning back around the man and immediately found herself face-to-face with the cause of the sound.

He'd punched the wall.

Gokudera had outright turned around and punched the wall hard enough for the plaster coating the concrete to crack, making it so that his chuckles collided with the rough rock beneath it. Tsuna could already see the red seeping out through the cracks, staining the light beige paint.

"What did you do that for?" she found herself frantically asking before she could stop herself, her own hands reaching out to pull the delinquent's fist out of the wall, allowing her to see the broken skin on his knuckles, as well as the blood now slowly seeping out of the injuries.

She let out a long sigh as she pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket.

"Now you're bleeding..." she muttered under her breath, already gently dabbing at the cuts, wiping away the blood whilst under the delinquent's hard gaze.

Apparently, her desire to see to it that he wasn't badly hurt offended him.

"Stop it."

Tsuna raised her head at the growled words.

"Stop what?" she asked, confused as she gently kept the pressure on the wounded knuckles, all the while keeping her eyes locked with the olive green ones of the male in front of her.

"The goodie-two-shoes routine," Gokudera growled furiously, although he kept his hand on hers, her handkerchief still on his skin. Eyes narrowed, he pushed himself closer to her. "Stop it."

Tsuna couldn't believe it.

His words were sending a strange sensation through her body, like liquid ice filling her veins as she stared into his eyes. The absolute annoyance in those orbs told her that he was very serious about what he was saying, but she couldn't help but ask:

"You're telling me that you cannot believe that I am doing this simply because I want to?" she raised his hand in between the two of them, his eyes flashing down to the limb before they returned to pin her own once again.

"Obviously," Gokudera answered with a roll of his eyes. "No one is that selfless." he presses himself closer to her, leaning down to push his face even closer to her own, just like he'd done the day before, but there was one very prominent difference about the situation this time. "What is your agenda?"

A breath of air shot out of Tsuna's throat in what must have been an annoyance, hitting Gokudera in the face as she shook her head in apparent exasperation.

"You know..." she breathed, dropping his hand, yanking the handkerchief off of his cuts before she stuffed the cloth back into her pocket with no thought to fold it before she did. She removed her bag from her shoulder and began looking through it. "I have had every insult imaginable thrown at her over the past eleven years." she had to pause as said insults passed through her memory. "And yet..." slowly, she pulled her first-aid kit out of her bag and turned back towards Gokudera, who was now looking at her in obvious confusion. "That comment is the one that hurts me the most."

She looked at Gokudera in the closest to a glare the young man had ever seen in the short time he had known her, but from what he'd seen, a glare was something unheard of from her.

She shoved the kit into Gokudera's fumbling hands, the confusion disorienting him.

And she couldn't blame him, this feeling was one Tsuna wasn't used to having.

She could only describe it as disappointment mixed in with a strong sense of guilt. A combination that she found herself really, really detesting.

"Wha-?" Gokudera started, blinking at her, but she didn't allow him to continue.

"Don't worry." Tsuna's voice was emotionless as she looked up at the man, shocking him at her sudden shift. "I won't bother you anymore."

And with that said, Tsuna threw her bag over her shoulder, turned around, and walked away.

She could feel Gokudera's eyes trailing after her until she rounded the corner, but she blocked the sensation from her mind.

She was done with him.

* * *

For a long moment, Gokudera just stood there, staring down the hallway the infuriating girl had disappeared down.

He couldn't wrap his head around her. Her sudden shift in attitude had come so suddenly that he couldn't quite recall what had caused it. This would take some serious evaluation, then he would approach her again.

The actress would answer to him one way or another.

Gokudera did not leave a debt unpaid.

Although…

He'd stolen her first kiss?

He was familiar enough about lying that he could tell that that much was true, and with how cautiously the classmates were treating her, it was obvious enough that it could very well be true.

Despite himself, Gokudera could feel himself feeling guilty.

No girl should have her first kiss stolen…

 **A/N: Again, I am SO sorry for the long wait I have put you through, as well as the shortness of this chapter, but I felt as though that was how long the chapter needed to be, and as I said, I am quite pleased with how it turned out.**

 **Please tell me what you think, do not comment on possible spelling or grammatical errors as I am still working on those kinds of things no matter the language I'm writing in, I'm currently in a good mood so please do not ruin it for me.**

 **Anyway, I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as I can, but I have taken up classes again and is currently waiting to be psychologically evaluated under orders from the employment office (apparently, feeling like shit whilst working as a cashier is a bad thing) so I will probably not have as much time as I would like to write in the near future.**

 **This has been**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	15. Scene 15: Somewhat Understanding

**A/N: I am so sorry that it has taken me this long to come with an update, there's been a several lack of motivation on my part, but I have managed to come forward with yet another chapter, and I have to say that I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Actually uploading it was a bitch because the document NEVER wanted to turn out right and just... it was a pain.**

 **Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this.**

* * *

 **Scene 15:**

 **Somewhat understanding**

 _ **June 3**_

 _ **Wednesday 2215**_

Tsuna walked through the school hallway, bag swinging from her arm as she mentally prepared herself for the day, scenarios pooling through her mind, one after the other, and the worst of it was that each and every one of those scenarios looked all the more credible.

She didn't want to see Mochida, but now she didn't want to see Gokudera either.

The transfer student wasn't bad enough that she would have put him on her list of people she hated, he was nowhere near the high standards she has for one to classify for that list, but he'd hurt her, despite everything she'd done, he'd hurt her.

And that made the pain all the worse.

Speaking of pain.

The kind that suddenly shot through her right shoulder was a lot more bearable, one that she was used to, one that was also known as the pain one receives when someone crashes into you when passing. It sent her stumbling around in a half-circle, facing the culprit.

The universe must hate her.

"Watch where you're going," Gokudera growled at her, his olive eyes narrowed at her face as he stepped up towards her, obviously trying to be intimidating.

Not today honey.

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna spun around on her heel, shaking her head as she kept walking down the hall, but of course, Gokudera just wouldn't have that would he?

"Oh, so you're just going to ignore me now are you?"

Well, he was right about that.

She didn't even give him the slightest sign that she'd heard him, keeping up with the swing of her bag in the most nonchalant move she could manage, taking silent pleasure in the obvious anger she was causing the young man.

"Hey!"

Suddenly, a familiar hand closed around her arm, yanking her out of the path she'd set out for her, once again sending her crashing against the school wall. She actually rolled her eyes through the pain, refusing to look at the young man that had her pushed up against the concrete, his hands clutching at her shoulders.

"Look at me you bitch!" the silver-haired man screamed towards her turned face, almost spitting on her cheek.

Tsuna just blinked, forcing her body to remain in a calm state, to not react to the transfer student's treatment of her.

Gokudera probably would have resorted to shaking her, had an angel not appeared from up above.

Well…

From around the corner.

"Let go of her!" Yamamoto called out, sprinting down the corridor and shoving Gokudera out of the way, sending the silver-haired guy stumbling a few meters away from the two long-term classmates before he finally regained his balance, and when he did, he pinned that heated stare of fury on the baseball player.

"Stay out of this baseball freak!" he growled, marching up towards the other teenager.

Yamamoto however, was not having it, his eyes locked in a serious gaze that those who were used to Yamamoto had come to know as his "baseball gaze", a gaze so cold and serious it always serves to sent terrified chills running over the spines of his opponents. It was a strange thing to see that look off the field, and Tsuna didn't know how she was supposed to react to it...

It would appear that the look also served to put a pause to Gokudera's anger as well.

"I will not!" Yamamoto shouted right in the transfer student's face, utilizing his superior height to properly glare down at their other classmate. "Leave her alone!"

With that said, the athlete turned to the girl still leaning against the wall, watching the spectacle unfolding in front of her. His serious gaze immediately melted away into a gentle expression, stepping up to her to put his hand on the small of her back.

"You alright?" he asked softly.

"Yeah…" she asked quietly, nodding her head. "I'm fine."

Of course, this ticked Gokudera off even more, if that was even possible.

"Oh," he growled, throwing his hands out at his sides with an eye-roll so big his head moved with it. "So you can talk to him, but not me?"

The two long-term classmates ignored him.

"Come on." Yamamoto steered Tsuna away from the wall. "Let's get out of here," he said, sending Gokudera a glare over his shoulder, Tsuna's eyes also lingering a little bit before she turned back down the hallway, ignoring the sound of the furious young man they left behind.

As the two long-time classmates walk through the hallway, Tsuna couldn't help but notice just how stiffly the athlete was walking, his eyelids twitching as though visibly keeping in the flashes of pain shooting through his body at every movement.

This got Tsuna thinking.

This guy was one of the top athletes in the school and he maintains that title with an almost religious stubbornness. She'd seen him train in the afternoons, and he always gives 150% with every swing of the bat.

Taking that training into account and the gym-class he'd just returned from, there really is no wonder that his body's currently in pain.

If only the rest of his team thought to train as hard as he did, then they wouldn't have to rely on his play so much every game, and then Yamamoto wouldn't feel pressured enough to keep up such an insane training schedule day in and day out.

Really, he's going to work himself to death one day.

She should have asked him about it, she really should have, but she didn't think he would appreciate it, and maybe even brush her aside if she did.

So instead of bringing it up, she stored the thought away for a later date.

For when she absolutely needed it.

Once the two were a good enough distance away from Gokudera, Yamamoto finally opened his mouth.

"What was his problem?" he asked, jerking his head back to where they started.

"I really have no idea." Tsuna breathed, scratching between her eyebrows in mild annoyance. "He wanted to be left alone, and when I do he blows up." she threw her arms out in mild exasperation, more emotion than she was willing to show anyone.

Yamamoto let out a small chuckle.

"It's always the handsome ones, isn't it?" he mused silently.

He'd probably meant it to go unheard, but there was no way his almost hyper-perceptive classmate wouldn't have caught it.

Brown eyes widened slightly, eyebrows raising a fraction as she looked to her long-term classmate.

"You think he's handsome?" she found herself asking before she had the time to think about the possible consequences.

For a moment, Yamamoto looked a little awkward, but he didn't hesitate to answer.

"Pansexual."

"Huh…" she mused, glancing at the athlete from the corner of her eye. "How many people know about that?" she could have sworn she saw a flash of pain pass over Yamamoto's face, still not looking at her.

He remained looking at nothing for a brief second before he shook his head, turning towards her with that smile back on his face.

That, smile.

The smile Tsuna could see was painfully fake.

"Not as many as I would like," he answered truthfully, his eyes focused on her forehead instead of her eyes. She didn't need him to meet her gaze in order to read what was generally going through his mind though…

However, even the emotions in those hazel eyes were completely chaotic, it was almost impossible to distinguish just what was going on in that head.

Slowly, Tsuna allowed herself a slow nod.

She had expected their conversation to be over at that point, but apparently, Yamamoto thought differently.

"Can I ask what you are?" he almost blurted out the question, obviously regretting it half-way if that look on his face was anything to go by.

Tsuna allowed herself a quick, small smile before easily answering him.

"Boring."

* * *

Tsuna had been watching Reborn at her window for the last hour, observing him as he kept dipping a quill into a bottle of ink like the one he had given her and drew glyph after glyph around her window, each one burning the wooden frame-work a little before settling with what Tsuna was surprised to see was a metallic sheen to them before they faded away into obscurity.

They were still there, she could feel that they were, but she couldn't see them.

The ease in which he drew each squiggly line, the speed, and precision of each stroke, told Tsuna that the man had plenty of experience drawing those things.

When he'd first started (after barging into her room yet again and refused to answer any of her questions) she'd attempted to flip through the book he'd given her to try and find out just what it was he was doing to her window, but he was going too fast, she never had the time to find one before he moved onto the next and by that time the one she was looking for was already gone, so she gave up.

Now, the book was lying next to her hip as she sat on the bed, head resting in the palm of her hand and her fingernails pressed against her cheek.

Finally, the tutor removed the quill from the wood, putting the stopper back in the bottle-neck and turned towards his student, pausing a moment at the blank expression on her face.

"Are you going to explain what you just did?" she asked, keeping her voice monotone.

"No." Came Reborn's quick answer.

Nodding, Tsuna straightened her spine, leaning back on the mattress.

"Just how much are you keeping from me?"

"A lot."

A silence fell over the two, Tsuna knowing perfectly well that he wouldn't answer her. No matter how much she hated not understanding something.

Reborn sighed heavily, stuffing the bottle into his pocket.

"I'll tell you everything eventually," he said, moving towards the stairs.

"And when is eventually?" Tsuna asked sarcastically, allowing herself to fall back onto the sheets, staring up at the ceiling.

Reborn paused at the first step.

"You'll know."

And with that, he just left.

The man was only frustrating Tsuna more and more. She suspected he got some kind of sick twisted pleasure in keeping information from her, kinda like she did when she revealed shocking information to someone she didn't particularly care for…

Sighing, she raised herself up again, allowing her eyes to wander over the still-not-finished mural that covered the walls of her room.

She really should get to finishing it. At the moment, it just looked like a child's attempt at planning a park theme with a professionals skill, there weren't nearly enough things there and she needed to fix it. It would help her get her mind off of her teacher's secrets at least.

* * *

 _ **June 4**_

 _ **Thursday 2215**_

She should have expected it, what with everything that was happening, she should have been more attentive and she hated the fact that she allowed the moment to spring upon her.

She's just been about to turn the corner towards home-room when she saw just a glimpse of the man that immediately sent those familiar, terrifying tingles shooting through her fingers, forcing her to immediately press herself against the wall, hoping against all odds that the man wouldn't find her, her eyes squeezed shut as she desperately forced down the tingling sensation.

The groaned, wishing she could finally, FINALLY get some of that control Reborn promised her.

* * *

They had a canceled lesson that day.

A canceled lesson that allowed the students to go outside and spend their sudden free-time on the school grounds and wallow in the beautiful day that had surprised almost all of them, and thus there they all were, spread out over the decorated green grounds doing whatever they felt like doing.

In Gokudera's case, that was studying the tiny, fragile object of his current confusion.

Sawada Tsunako had settled herself down on the steps leading up to one of the schools many side entrances with what looked to be a sketchbook of all things folded up in her lap, a pen slowly gliding over the page, all her attention locked on the paper.

Sketchbooks were practically a non-existent thing in this day and age what with people now preferring to use Creative-Pads for intricately detailed artwork that can always be altered without bringing any form of damage to the background. Only a few shops sold paper in general now.

But that wasn't why he was looking at her.

She'd been the subject of his incredible confusion and overall thoughts for days and it was beginning to drive the young man mad. He just couldn't understand the way her mind worked, her acting was too good and too consistent for him to feel at ease with his conclusion.

He needed more information.

He needed to know more about her past.

He needed some form of confirmation that what he KNEW to be right was indeed right, no matter how many times the girl tried and convince him he was wrong.

Finally, he made up his mind.

Getting up off of the ground, Gokudera marched right up to where one certain athlete was standing, swarmed by other guys and girls, all very noisy and annoying. So annoying that Gokudera could feel his eyebrow twitching as he approached the group.

He didn't announce his presence, he didn't care about that. Instead, he just stuck his hand into the group and grabbed the athlete's arm, ignoring the flinch that rushed through the guy's body as he was yanked from his "friends".

Yamamoto Takeshi looked down on Gokudera in confusion, the noise suddenly has gone from their surroundings.

"I need to talk to you," Gokudera said before the athlete had the chance to talk, pulling him even further away from any of their classmates, but still within eyesight of them so as to not create any unnecessary rumors.

Finally, he pulled to a stop and turned around towards the athlete.

"What's up?" he asked, looking quite confused, but his face still bore that annoying smile.

"Tell me something," Gokudera spoke up, catching the athlete's attention.

The happy, helpful look on his face was absolutely sickening to him but he shoved aside his own discomfort. He was on a mission and nothing was going to keep him from getting his answers.

"What's the deal with bird's nest hair over there?" he asked, jerking his head in the direction where the girl in question was still sitting, the pen moving over the page in the sketchbook, absolutely oblivious to what he was doing.

The response was instantaneous.

"Don't talk about Sawada like that."

Gokudera had to keep himself from flinching at the sudden seeming complete reversal of personality in the star athlete. Going from the happy-go-lucky outlook to something Gokudera could only describe as absolute, protective fury in a matter of a split second. The athlete squaring his shoulders and straightening his spine, allowing him to tower over him at his full height as his narrowed eyes glared down at him.

It was actually quite the intimidating expression.

"She's got enough on her plate already," Yamamoto mumbled, glancing over to where Tsuna's petite frame was still hunched over her sketchbook.

Gokudera's eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you mean?" he asked, refusing to follow the athlete's gaze.

Yamamoto let out a long sigh, scratching at the back of his neck before turning back to the delinquent, obviously debating whether or not she actually should answer him. Eventually, he gulped, clearing his throat before he started talking.

"For the past eleven years..." the athlete began slowly, taking another deep breath as a guilty look passed over his face. "Sawada was pretty much everyone's punching bag."

Gokudera's frown deepened.

"Why?" he almost snapped. "She's not a bad person."

A good actress, but not an overall bad person.

A humorless chuckle slipped from Yamamoto's mouth.

"You can see that can you?" he asked sarcastically, shifting his weight as his eyes moved towards the ground. "I suspect that everyone was too blinded by what they saw of her performances in class and what she wears to have ever tried to look any closer than that." he sighed as his eyes gravitated towards the girl in question.

Gokudera's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Her performances are perfectly fine," he argued. "Just below average I'd say."

"They are now." Yamamoto immediately responded, his one hand rising to rub the back of his neck. "Until the start of this term, she received nothing but failed grades and tripped over everything, even air." that guilty look was still present on his face. "Before everyone knew what happened, she earned herself the title of 'useless' by everyone around." for a moment, the athlete clenched his eyes shut, his nails scratching at the skin on the back of his neck. "Of course..." he breathed. "We didn't know she was suffering from a brain condition at the time."

Gokudera's eyes widened.

A brain condition?

The messy haired girl was suffering from a brain condition?

His eyes briefly flickered over to the girl in question, trying to not think about the possible hardships she must have gone through. It didn't matter, she was still an actress, and he needed to figure out more about her.

Gulping, he turned his attention back towards the athlete.

"You bullied a handicapped girl?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yamamoto's hand fell to his side.

"I never personally partook in the bullying..." he sighed heavily, turning his head to look at Tsuna, his expression remaining the same. "But I am terribly ashamed that I never did anything to try and make her life any easier until the start of the school year, yes." he turned his attention back towards Gokudera. "One brief conversation with her the week before school started off again and my opinion on her was completely changed." he let out a heavy breath, his jaw clenching as he gritted his teeth behind closed lips. His eyes turned serious as he looked into Gokudera's eyes. "She just started to piece her life together." the transfer student could see the athlete balling his fists at his sides. "I don't want you to try and sabotage it for her."

It was a threat, Gokudera could recognize that.

But… this was the first time he'd ever seen someone threaten him, to stay away from another person, and the person threatening wasn't romantically involved or even romantically interested in the person in question.

It took a while before he gathered his bearings, an annoyed look passing over his face.

"She was the one who approached me, not the other way around."

Yamamoto's eyes flew open in shock.

"What?" Gokudera asked, feeling even more annoyed at the reaction.

Yamamoto blinked, bringing himself out of whatever Gokudera's words had put him in.

"Sawada talked to you?"

Gokudera frowned.

"What of it?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Yamamoto shook his head, but the disbelief never left him.

"Sawada's made a point to never talk to anyone unless she feels the situation deserves her opinion." the athlete cleared his throat, blinking even faster than before, almost looking as though he had caught something in his eye. "She didn't talk to me until I apologized for running into her on the street and insisted on cleaning her scrapes..."

Now, Gokudera was even more confused.

He'd come to Yamamoto for answers, not to be thrown for an even bigger loop than he had been before!

Whatever… he told himself, brushing aside those thoughts.

"Good for you." he kept himself back from fully snapping at the athlete.

Groaning, Gokudera shifted where he stood, shaking his head before furiously ruffling his hair, letting out a long groan.

"I don't see what's so good about her," he muttered, more to himself than anything but Yamamoto could hear every word. "She's so sensitive-"

Yamamoto's eyes snapped to the transfer student.

"Sensitive?" he asked, sounding as though he didn't even know what that word meant.

Gokudera scoffed.

"Yes," he said as though it was obvious. "I just said the most passive comment, and she completely shut me off!" he had obviously been more annoyed at that than anything else about the messy haired Sawada girl.

Yamamoto just kept frowning.

"Sawada is the furthest thing from sensitive." the athlete argued.

It was as though the athlete had slipped an ice-cube into the back of Gokudera's shirt, olive eyes slowly moving to meet Hazel.

"Sawada has had insults thrown at her for as long as I've known her." the serious gaze was back and Gokudera really didn't like the sight of it. "Her mental walls against hurtful words are as thick as the great wall of China, coated with a one-meter layer of rubber." he moved his hands for visual representation for his mental image. "Everything just bounces off of her." Yamamoto's eyes narrowed as he lowered his hands. "If you managed to hurt her, then you hit something that has never been hit before."

Never been hit before?

How could he have hit something that has never been hit before?

All he did was point out something that should have been perfectly obvious for heaven's sake!

He couldn't keep the contempt hidden any longer.

"Oh," he growled. "So the actress has you fooled too?"

Suddenly, it was as though all the sound left the world, leaving just the two classmates standing there in the light of the sun, staring into each other's eyes.

Gokudera realized too late, he'd said the wrong thing.

"Actress?" Yamamoto repeated, sounding quite dumbfounded. "You think of her as an actress?"

Gokudera shrugged, ruffling his hair.

"A good one too."

Whatever reaction he had expected to get from Yamamoto, this hadn't been the one. The look of shocked disbelief quickly followed by blatant disdain was even more shocking to Gokudera than the serious look he'd been given sometime back.

He'd pegged Yamamoto as one of those people that never once allowed his real emotions to be shown, the kind of person that almost forces himself to like everyone around him no matter what happens just to protect his popular image in the eyes of his admirers, but now he was looking at Gokudera like THAT?

The athlete shook his head, stuffing his hands into his pockets and turned around, obviously planning to walk away from the other young man.

Gokudera would not have it.

"Hey!" he called out, grabbing the athlete's stupidly muscular shoulder and stepping out around him, forcing him to stop. "What the hell is the matter with you!?"

Apparently, that was the final straw for Yamamoto.

"Sawada is the most genuine person you'll ever meet!" he screamed right back into Gokudera's face, successfully shocking the other boy silent, his calloused hands shooting out of his pockets to allow him to throw his arms out at his sides in obvious exasperation. "Ever wonder why I hang around her so much?!"

For a moment, Gokudera found himself unable to answer.

He shot his tongue out to force his lips apart.

"Because you want her in bed?"

Gokudera was surprised when the athlete let out the most honest scoff he'd ever heard, shaking his head as he crossed his arms over his chest before he pinned the delinquent with that unnervingly serious look again.

"She's got too much pride to allow that."

Gokudera blinked.

"Pride?"

"Yes, pride," Yamamoto repeated, rolling his shoulders as he sighed again. "She's a very prideful person, and the thing she's got the most pride in is herself."

Gokudera was starting to become annoyed with how many times he was thrown for a loop.

"What?"

The delinquent watched as a small, fond smile spread over the athlete's face, his eyes traveling over to the messy-haired girl. This time, Gokudera couldn't stop himself from following the other male's line of sight, taking in the way the girl just sat there with her legs pulled up against her chest and her ankles crossed.

To Gokudera, that was a protective sitting style, but he wondered what the athlete was seeing.

"To quote Sawada herself from our first day of term." the athlete began looking Gokudera right in the eyes. _"_ _If you won't like me for who I am, I won't bother with you."_

It was like a shock went through Gokudera's body at the words, the meaning sinking into his head as he felt himself freezing to the spot.

Yamamoto wasn't finished.

"She's always, ALWAYS, made a point to be herself no matter what happened to her." Gokudera couldn't help but take a mental note of the tone of almost admiration that took over the athlete's voice, growing stronger with every word he said. "She powers through everything, she will never give anyone the pleasure of turning her into something she's not." Gokudera's eyebrows twitched into a small frown as a small note of envy seeped into the athlete's tone.

Yamamoto's eyes trailed over to Tsuna again.

"With Sawada… what you see, is always what you get." a smile formed on Yamamoto's mouth. "No act, no pretense, everything is 100% genuine." the smile was wiped away when the athlete turned back to Gokudera. "By saying that you believe her character couldn't be true, you struck her pride, the one thing that had yet to be struck by anyone." Yamamoto's eyes narrowed in that angry look again. "That's why she won't talk to you anymore." Gokudera watched as Yamamoto's eyes narrowed, pupils traveling up and down his slightly shorter frame as though the athlete was sizing him up for something. "The fact that she even did, to begin with, says a lot about the person she believed you to be."

With that said, Yamamoto turned right around and returned to the group he'd left behind, leaving Gokudera standing there with his mind reeling.

* * *

 **A/N: I will try to get back to this as soon as I can, but there really is no guarantee that there will be a consisted update for this fanfic, I have too many things going on in my mind, too many story ideas competing for attention to really set a scheduled date for when I should sit down and work on this thing. But do not threat, I have not stopped working on it entirely, I will probably never stop working on it, I love it too much and have put down too much work on it to really give up.**

 **I've actually been working on this story for three years now, can you believe that? It is without a doubt the absolute longest I've worked on anything in my life and it makes me really proud of myself that I have managed to keep this going for so long.**

 **Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, please, PLEASE, tell me what you think, it's mainly all the feedback I get that keeps me motivated to write, I am not kidding, I am severely lacking in self-motivational skills so practically all of my reason to keep writing had to come from the outside in order for anything to happen. It's the knowledge that people are anticipating the next update and take the time to really write down what they think that keeps me going.**

 **I am not fishing for compliments, I'm actually going through the process of being psychologically evaluated so it is an ACTUAL problem.**

 **Anyway, thank you so much for having waited for so long.**

 **This had been,**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	16. Scene 16: Needed Closure

**A/N: Her Ladyship has now passed Ethics, Religion, and Pedagogical Leadership (yes, I took a fucking course in that even though I am DEFINITELY not leader material, it was very educational)! And I am fucking PROUD of myself.**

 **As you can imagine, my education has been shoved to the front of my priority list but as I have passed them and am free from any kind of school until the end of summer, I have a lot more time to dedicate to writing, and I just happened to decide to read the reviews I have received from the previous chapters, and I found myself pulling up the document again.**

 **I'm telling you those things keep this story alive.**

 **Now… this chapter has some scenes that are new, and some that were in the original version of this story, only… I think it was relocated… I no longer keep track of it all.**

 **I'm actually quite proud of how it turned out and I hope that you all like it, I'm sorry it took so long to get out, but… life.**

 **And BTS…**

 **Anyway.**

 **Please,**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Scene 16:**

 **Needed Closure**

 _ **June 6**_

 _ **Saturday 2215**_

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Yamamoto's voice cut through the silence that had formed between them the second they stopped in front of the hospital, her hidden eyes snapping from the pristine building in order to look at the young man that had absolutely insisted to come with her.

Apparently, he wouldn't allow her to do it alone.

Silently, Tsuna really, REALLY, appreciated the gesture.

"If I don't do this, I'll never get over it," she answered slowly, removing her gaze from the athlete. "So yes." with that said, she started towards the hospital's front doors.

She didn't have to walk long before Yamamoto was once again at her left side. It always surprised her just how natural it felt walking with the athlete, but she brushed aside the thought, nothing good would come out of being compostable with someone so popular.

Mochida had proved that point.

"You didn't have to come with me, you know." she tried once again as the two long-term classmates passed through the hospital doors, the taller holding the slab of non-reflective glass open for the smaller.

"Yes, I did." was her only reply.

* * *

It had taken some time for Tsuna to gather up the stability she needed to walk up to the reception desk and leave the two names, lying straight to the young man's face on the other side of the desk when she said that she and Yamamoto were friends that just wanted to see how bad their condition was.

The young man didn't look like he believed her, but he also didn't keep the information from a young girl that didn't look like she had the strength to kill a fly.

He probably would have been a lot more wary of Yamamoto, had the athlete not looked like the picture of composure, only throwing worried looks at the back of Tsuna's head every now and then, so if she did anything, Yamamoto would most likely stop her.

They got the room, and they slowly, slowly, weaved their way through the corridors of the building, almost slowing down, even more, the closer they got to their set-out destination.

Finally, there they were, in front of the door that Tsuna had found herself dreading finding the more the reality of the situation sunk in.

Why was she doing this again?

Yamamoto seemed to have been thinking the same thing if the look he had on his face when she glanced at him told her anything, his thumbs were hooked in the loops of his jeans as he seemed to glare at the smooth white surface of the door.

She wanted to turn back and walk right out of the building, but she knew she couldn't.

She needed the closure.

She needed to see them.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out and pressed her hand against the door where a handle would have been, a green light emanating from the door, illuminating the contours of her hand before the slab of mechanized mixed materials slid to the side, making just enough space for Tsuna and Yamamoto to step inside.

She could already feel the heat churning inside of her.

And there they were…

Lying in individual hospital beds especially adjusted to their bodies, wires, and tubes connected to their skin and inserted into their veins so as to keep them alive. One of them had one of those breathing tube thingies shoved down his throat, the other looked like he could breathe on his own, but he was also the one with the shaved head so his skull must have been smashed or something, and if Tsuna knew anything, it was to protect the head.

Damage to the brain is NOT a laughing matter.

Looking at them now, it was strange to imagine that they were the same people who pinned her down in that alley, that had grabbed her from behind and refused to let go…

Still, she couldn't feel any form of relief seeing them in those beds.

She knew very well what it was like being in one of those, and whilst the mattresses might have been especially created to conform to the body's needs, thus making them one of the most comfortable beds she'd ever slept in: being in the hospital was like being in prison, except prison allowed you to walk free within a guarded area, most of those in the hospital couldn't do that, not even to the hospital gardens.

Tsuna looks at the faces of two of the three men that had assaulted her, the world around her seeming to slow down as she did. She took her time studying their features, ignoring how sweaty her hands were growing the longer she stared.

She would say that she felt a smidge of pride at the fact that she didn't feel nearly as much fear at the sight of them as she'd expected she'd feel, she felt mostly… numb.

She'd wanted to come here to build up her emotional strength, to stare at a part of her inner torment and build up something of a wall against that overwhelming fear she always felt snapping at her whenever Mochida was within her line of sight.

Looking at them like this, both in a coma for obvious reasons with no guarantee that they would wake up anytime soon, it filled Tsuna with a strange collection of mixed emotions that made it hard for her to tell just what she was feeling, hence the numb part.

She was doing this for her, and so far, she didn't know if it was working or not.

She hoped that it did.

"We should go." Yamamoto's voice sounded muffled, as though she was hearing him through water, distorted, strange…

Still, Tsuna allowed that callused hand to gently wrap around her upper, gently tugging her away from the beds and out of the room, a second hand is placed at the small of her back as the athlete lead her through the hallway that now seemed all too bright.

Their steps were slower, like trudging knee deep in mud…

Once they stepped outside the building, Tsuna felt as though she'd just resurfaced after a long swim along the ocean floor, the air filling her lungs causing her to let out a gasp. Thankfully, Yamamoto didn't question her, he didn't seem at all surprised at her reaction. The athlete just moves his hands so as to gently grasp her shoulders, slowly rubbing them up and down in a gentle touch that was oh so foreign to her.

She didn't complain though…

She liked it.

She didn't say anything, she just let her long-term classmate lead her back home.

* * *

The second she stepped through the front door, where stood Reborn.

Well, stood and stood, the man never actually stood, always seeming to lean on anything, even the air, how he did it she had no idea and it was annoying her on multiple levels.

Without saying anything, the man removed himself from the wall and walked up to her, grabbing hold of her upper arm and almost, almost, dragged her up the stairs to her bedroom. Thankfully, her mother wasn't at home to see the act and thus the man wasn't at all worried about holding back his more questionable actions.

Once safe in Tsuna's attic room, Reborn spun around towards her, grabbing her by her shoulders as he moved her towards the bed, locking eyes with hers.

"Sit," he ordered, leaving no room for arguments or questions.

Tsuna sighed as she allowed herself to fall against the sheets, knowing that the man would be looking for any side effects her core was going through from her rather… risky move by seeing the two athletes.

If only she could stop shaking...

She watched as Reborn's eyes flashed a bright yellow, the pupils, not the irises, and said irises were raking over her, looking for the cause of her seemingly endless shaking.

Finally, the man let out a long sigh.

"We need to bump up your emotion-control training," he stated, crouching down in front of her to bet a better look at the tremors in her hand. "It would appear that we haven't done enough of it." as he looked up at her, the glowing reseeded, leaving his eyes as lifelessly black as they had been before.

When Tsuna remained silent, Reborn raised a surprised eyebrow.

"No retort?" he questioned, once again receiving little to no reaction from his student.

After a long moment of silence, Reborn let out a sigh.

He patted her on the side of her neck, stiffening his fingers to hold her in place as he leaned in close enough that their foreheads hovered mere inches away from one another.

Still no reaction.

"Meditate." the man ordered, letting go of the girl.

Instead of meditating like the teacher had wanted, Tsuna knew that such a thing would not help her calm down and she needed to be calm before she could even attempt to do that search that would allow her to gain better control of her internal functions.

Tearing her gaze from the teachers, she pulled her pendant from her neck, fetching the pretty music box from her bedside table, sliding the pendant into that small indentation with familiar ease and twisting it, feeling the teachers eyes boring into her back.

Soon enough, the familiar melody spread through the room.

Reborn really couldn't say anything against her wish to play the melody.

She stopped shaking the second the first note sounded.

* * *

 _ **June 8**_

 _ **Monday 2215**_

Tsuna tried to keep her mind off of what she'd seen the whole weekend, it had been something of a grueling process but she liked to think that she'd done a good job.

As the day had passed, Tsuna couldn't help but pay closer attention to the people around her, trying to spread out her conscious thought all around her body, trying to develop something of a 360-degree vision. Really it was something that Reborn had suggested she'd try doing so that no one would be able to surprise her again.

Personally, she blamed the man himself for even needing this in the first place, the training he was putting her through leaving her reactions and brain moving slower than usual as that was what he needed her to do in order to get a proper control of the flames once he's figured out a way for her to actually get a grasp on the core, but it was causing her to lose her original cool. She'd started to slightly jump when Yamamoto put his hand on her shoulder where she'd previously been able to know he was there seconds before he touched her.

So really, it was all Reborn's fault.

She sighed as her fingers tightened around the paintbrush in her hand.

Truly, thank the heavens that schools still allowed students of the artistic department to have actual art classes, not those technology-based art classes where they would draw on Creative-Pads and screens, but actual art classes where the students could pick and choose between several shades of thick oily paints, learn of the time-consuming task of painting on a canvas without a redo button that could cause a sense of ease that an artist shouldn't need.

Tsuna viewed that redo button as cheating, but you didn't hear it from me.

Classical art was one of the few classes in which Tsuna actually felt content, and at the moment, she had one of her favorite brushes gently resting at the curve between her index finger and thumb as she expertly guided the globed up strands over the coarse surface of the canvas. It was the only class as of right now in which she could subtly show off.

Ballet was still a no-no sadly.

Tsuna was right in the middle of mixing streaks of blue with smaller streaks of white to create the sea-foam lining of the still invisible beach slowly coming to life on the canvas, when the bell suddenly rang through the air, making several of the deeply concentrating students jump in their seats, some even "ruining" their paintings when the jump made their brushes slip.

Tsuna's never once complained about a failed brushstroke.

Creative failures are just opportunities to be innovative in her mind.

She did see the annoyance though.

Tsuna herself probably would have let out a groan at the sound of the shrill bell, but this was the last class of the day, she didn't have to move at all.

She could stay for as long as she wanted if she told the teacher that she wanted to finish her project before she went home.

Andou-sensei was an understanding, spirited woman in her early thirties. She wouldn't force Tsuna to go home as she was just as dedicated to the craft as she was.

The sounds of hands clapping forced Tsuna out of her creative trance, tearing her eyes away from her canvas to the front of the room.

"May I have your attention before you all leave?" Andou-sensei called out, dark eyes wandering over the students already scurrying to clean up their stations and get back to their everyday lives, well, those that had them.

All eyes turned towards the teacher.

Andou-sensei was a very pretty woman on the short side, with long stress-thinned dark-brown hair braided down her back, with a surprisingly young face sporting large doe-like eyes and freckles speckled across her naturally rosy cheeks; she also happened to be in the earliest stages of pregnancy, just barely starting to show, so she would soon take leave for that and the school would have to hire a substitute teacher.

It was a shame really, Andou-sensei was a really good teacher.

"I'm going to be giving you an assignment." the woman called out, her mouth "twisted" into something like what Tsuna knew her classmates would call a smirk.

Classmates that broke out into groans at the mere mention of the word "assignment" without even knowing what it was about.

Especially those that in Tsuna's opinion put WAY too much time in their social life.

Or was it Tsuna that put too LITTLE time in her social life?

Most likely.

"I know, I know," Andou-sensei said with a dismissive wave of her hand, shooing off the class's less-than-stellar response as if they were nothing more than a small swarm of flies and her hand was a zapper-net. "You are to make a canvas painting, and turn it in at any given point for the rest of term." her pretty smile grew. "So long as they are turned in before the end of the semester." she put her hands on her hips, giving each and every groaning student a playfully stubborn look. "That will be plenty of time, will it not?"

"Yes." the class mumbled as one.

"Good." Andou-sensei smiled. "You are to paint a portrait of your best friend. How's that for an assignment?"

This got a better response as the class immediately went into a rather frantic buzzing, completely forgetting their ongoing projects in order to turn and look at friends they already had in the room, setting times and places for when they should make their paintings.

No one saw the devastated expression that had plastered itself over Tsuna's face.

Honestly, she felt snubbed.

The second-to-last art assignment of the term and she wouldn't be able to make it.

She didn't have any best friend, let alone a friend in general that she could ask to model for her, or even an acquaintance that could stand being with her for as long as it would take for her to finish the painting.

The heavy feeling that overcame her almost made her put her brush in the wrong place on the canvas, ruining her work.

Thankfully, she managed to stop her hand before it ruined her current project.

How was she going to do her assignment if she didn't have a model?

Could she paint her mother?

No, no, that wouldn't look good…

Not that her mother wasn't beautiful, but she wouldn't fit in with the point of the project, she wasn't close enough to her mother in order for her to call her best friend.

She definitely couldn't paint Reborn, she wouldn't hear the end of it either from him or from the school as they would no doubt spread yet another set of absolutely preposterous rumors about their already rather strange relationship, plus, again, she didn't see that secretive tall-dark basically stranger as her best friend.

She'd been so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the rest of the class beginning to file out of the classroom, leaving her alone, sitting at the front of her assigned easel with the hand holding her paintbrush hovering in the air.

She was like a statue.

"Sawada-san?" the question brought Tsuna out of her state of shock.

Lowering her hand, the young woman turned her attention towards Andou-sensei who had somehow managed to sneak up behind her in her heavily pregnant state.

She'd lost her focus.

That wasn't good, not good at all.

"Shouldn't you be on your way home?" the kind teacher asked, peering behind Tsuna to see the painting behind her.

Tsuna looked back at the painting herself.

The theme of that lesson had been to paint a scene that could possibly bring ease to the viewer, and Tsuna had optioned to paint a sea-shore in the night-time, with the stars shining down upon the surf and glowing algae glimmering in the waters. It was a scene that she herself felt pretty soothing, blue always managed to do that.

"I'd kind of like to finish this first." she pointed the tip of her brush to the canvas, immediately returning to applying blue where she'd deemed it was needed.

Amano-sensei smiled.

"Take your time then," she replied kindly, turning around to walk over to the door. However, she paused in the opening, looking over her shoulder at her, not so secret favorite student. "I look forward to seeing your assignment Sawada-san." and with that final smile, the teacher was out of the room, leaving Tsuna staring after her.

With a sigh, the girl in question let the brush drop, causing a small blob of paint to fall from the strands, landing on the piece of paper covering the floor under her easel.

"Too bad you won't get it."

* * *

 _ **June 9**_

 _ **Tuesday 2215**_

It was one of THOSE days.

Those days where which Nana would call up her daughter on her way home from school and practically demand that she would move her butt over to the bakery and help her with the more delicate decorations for cakes and other stuff.

A special occasion, Tsuna had no doubt.

Truthfully, yes, it was a special occasion when the customer asks for a wedding cake, isn't it?

When Tsuna had arrived at the bakery the cake was already mostly finished, just waiting for the fondant and decorations before it could be put away in storage for the bride to fetch in a couple of hours.

"There you are." Nana had said, almost pulling Tsuna into the kitchen and stationing her in front of the admittedly magnificent piece of pastry. "You know what to do."

So there she was, leaning her elbows on the counter-top, sitting on her knees on top of a counter-stool as she mixed different luster-dusts into small glass bowls of alcohol and carefully painting the decorative swirls along carefully marked lines in the fondant, lines that would be covered by more three dimensional decorations once Tsuna was done with her paintbrush.

Nana had already gone on to a different project, completely trusting her daughter with the task she'd set out for her.

She could have done the decorations herself, but her daughter was fifty times better than she could ever be with a paintbrush, and it saved up quite a bit of time if she did it than if Nana slaved over the thing in a half panic trying to get each line absolutely right.

The curse of being a perfectionist.

She did glance back at her daughter every once in a while though as she was kneading the dough, each time finding herself pushing down the urge to tell the girl to sit like a normal person would, but who was she to tell her daughter how to paint.

She never told her how to bake, and everyone in the kitchen knew that Nana's particular style of baking was not that… universal.

* * *

Tsuna had settled comfortably into her creative trance, moving the brush in quick but precise curves that neatly blended into one another on top of the pale lavender colored fondant.

It was then that she saw a shadow moving into her line of vision, and she had to fight the sigh from slipping out from between her lips.

"I've been meaning to ask you this for a while..." Sakura suddenly spoke up from her side, forcing Tsuna to remove her hand from the cake, not wanting to take any unnecessary chances when there is someone's wedding cake on the line.

For as long as Tsuna has been acquainted with Sakura, the woman had never once started a particularly pleasant conversation.

She didn't even give the woman enough attention to turn around and face her, apprehension filling her body as she just waited for the "bomb to drop" as one said in the old days.

"Have you gotten round to getting yourself a partner yet?"

There it was…

Last time Tsuna had been in the bakery the question had been if she was still a virgin. And the time before that the question had been whether or not her mother was "getting some action" lately. And the time before that…

She didn't want to think about that question.

Sakura meant well, Tsuna knew that, but the woman was WAY too focused on the idea that romance and sex were essential for the human being to be stable psychologically, believing that any, ANY, bad mood could be solved by getting particularly cozy under the sheets with a significant other, or even a one-night-stand.

It was very uncomfortable, to say the least.

Slowly, Tsuna turned her head towards Sakura, her eyes hidden by her hair.

Thing is… Sakura is a very beautiful young woman, with modest curves and bleached blonde hair currently twisted up into a messy bun, droopy eyes sporting velvet contacts for an extra little flare with matching make-up lining her eyes and smeared over her mouth.

She knew how to get her men Sakura, even though she did wind up crying whenever another relationship ended. Say… once every other month or so.

Now if only she knew how to get around a kitchen just as well…

The staff has tried to make Sakura see reason, to see that one did not NEED a man in their life to be happy, one did not need a romantic partner at all, but such a thought was blasphemy to the woman, having no doubt been raised being told that love was everything.

Even though Tsuna doubted Sakura knew what real love was…

She "fell in love" too quickly.

Too regularly.

Like clockwork.

Tsuna didn't even need to say anything, just pin the woman with her 'I'm not impressed' look and she silently backed away, taking the dishcloth Tsuna had not seen her put on the table when she'd stepped forward.

Shaking her head, Tsuna returned her attention to the cake.

And that's when she saw it.

Unintentionally, she'd been covering the cake in cleverly hidden sygils about the haphazard pattern…

Great…

* * *

A few hours later, Tsuna suddenly found herself stationed at the check-out-counter, watching as customer after customer gathered a tray and a tong by the door and walked among the many shelves of goodies her mother had put together that morning.

They did sell the leftovers as well, for half the price.

They always went like butter under the sun during the earliest hours after opening.

Now, why would Tsuna be sitting by the register?

Because wedding desert preparations take a lot of manpower and every single staff member was forced to participate in the loading of the hovercraft now parked out back, carrying box after box of sugary confections that would no doubt look just as pristine when they finally arrived at the wedding.

A sunset wedding… it would have been beautiful to paint…

Tsuna had already cleared ten customers when she suddenly heard a surprisingly loud shriek of what Tsuna could only describe as a mixture between shock and thinly veiled panic.

"Sawada-chan?!"

Peeling her eyes away from the register, Tsuna found herself face-to-face with the school angel, Sasagawa Kyoko, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights whilst carrying a tray piled high with a different assortment of carb-filled goods.

"W-what are you doing here?" the redheaded idol asked, looking terrified.

Tsuna just blinked, lifting her hand to motion towards her surroundings.

"It's my Mom's bakery," she answered slowly, taking the tray of treats from Kyoko's trembling hands. "I help out from time to time."

Tsuna quickly sorted through the different pastries, cookies, and cakes, mentally going over the prices her mother had made her memorize long before she could remember, typing them into the machine all the while listening to Kyoko's almost panicked babble.

"It's not all for me, how could it be all for me? There's way too much for it all to be just for me, I'm also buying for my family, of course, my family, I-"

Fearful for the fact that humans actually needed to breathe and it didn't look like Kyoko was doing that right now, Tsuna decided to put an end to her misery.

"Sasagawa-san." she said, forcing the other girl to stop rambling. "Your business is your business and none of mine." she shot the other girl a short smile. "You don't have to explain yourself." she turned back towards the pile of treats.

She pretended she didn't hear the exhale of relief.

Silence stretched out between the two girls as Kyoko completely calmed herself down. Until… the redhead decided she needed to ask something.

"Actually..." she gulped slightly. "I've been wondering..."

Again, Tsuna glanced up at the girl, her hair leaving very little for the other to see that Tsuna was actually looking at her.

"Those rumors about Mochida-sempai and..." Tsuna felt as though ice was filling her veins, a pleasant change from the fire. "You." Kyoko caught a lock of hair in her finger, twirling it around as she pinned Tsuna with an almost pleading look.

Silently, Tsuna awaited it.

"Are they true?"

* * *

 **A/N: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDD I'm leaving it there because I feel like being evil.**

 **Really, I'm just sleep deprived but I'm bringing it upon myself as I'm almost avoiding sleep completely nowadays, I don't know why I do it, I just do.**

 **Anyway, please tell me what you think, the reviews are LITERALLY the only things keeping this story running, this chapter could have wound up being finished in a year or something I have no idea.**

 **I'm still going through psychological evaluation or whatever it's called… the person I talked to believed that I might have ADD, many people think I am autistic (my brother has it so it is a distinct possibility), I believe that I have depression and Anxiety but nothing is really officially.**

 **To put it simply, working continuously even though I love what I'm working on is DIFFICULT!**

 **So please leave your thoughts and I'll be back with the next chapter whenever I come around to finishing it. I really do enjoy writing this, I just don't have the ability to motivate myself to do it.**

 **Keep me motivated, please!**

 **This has been,**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	17. Sense 17: Tense Confrontations

**A/N: Wow would you look at that…**

 **Sometimes I write too quickly, I don't even know how many words I can write in a day now, but anyway, I'm surprised that I managed to keep my interest long enough to finish another chapter so quickly, and I have to say that this one is a lot more plot-oriented than the first couple of ones.**

 **I don't know if I'm entirely pleased with how the thing turned out, but I am glad that I finished it and it could just be my anxiety talking…**

 **I'm really happy for the reviews I received for the last chapter, even if there weren't that many of them, they really warmed my heart and encouraged me to keep going, so thank you so much for taking the time.**

 **Now, I'm not going to hold you up for much longer.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Scene 17:**

 **Tense Confrontations**

For a long moment, Tsuna just stared at the other girl, her question ringing through her head.

Which rumors was she talking about exactly?

There were several different branches that had sprouted from the roots of the rumors, one all the more out there than the next. There was one rumor that had been shut down quite quickly saying that Mochida had been temporarily possessed by a shadow figure… truly, the imagination of mankind knows no bounds.

Okay, that's not true considering the human mind is incapable of being truly original, that's nature's job, but none the less, the ingenuity of the human mind knows no bounds.

Tsuna's tongue darted out, forcing her lips to part.

"Sasagawa-san..." she breathed, her voice little more than a sigh.

"Please." Kyoko interrupted her, hands finding their way towards the counter-top as she pinned Tsuna with a kind yet desperate kind of stare. It was a strange combination but Tsuna did not dislike it. "I need to know the truth."

Tsuna looked the redhead right in the eye, even though the other girl would not be able to tell that she was doing this.

Sighing, Tsuna returned to registering the snacks, carefully keeping her eyes on them as she forced the words out of her mouth, ignoring the eyes trailing her every movement, the eyes that have the majority of the male population in the school under their spell.

"I don't know which version you've heard." she started slowly, only to pause, momentarily stare into the air above the girl and shrugged. "All of them, probably." she sighed as she tapped in yet another code into the register, her fingers pausing on the last number. "He and his friends assaulted me."

Immediately, Kyoko stiffened up where she was standing, her perfectly manicured fingers curling inwards towards her palm, and… interestingly enough, her normally bright and kind eyes took on something of a darker hue, her beautiful face settling in an expression that Tsuna could only describe as… anger.

"They did not rape me." Tsuna was quick to put out.

"It doesn't make it any lighter," Kyoko argued, even her voice adopting a lower tone than the clear bell-like one the school had gotten so used to hearing.

Tsuna blinked before continuing.

"No." she agreed, her fingers moving up to carefully trace the scar on her jaw, the other girl's eyes trailing after every move. "But the rape still didn't happen." the hand fell down, eyes falling back down to the tray and double-checking at the register to see if she'd gotten down everything. "Just thought I'd officially put it out there."

Kyoko watched as Tsuna started to carefully back up her collection of treats, using a specially made box that would allow for such a collection to be carried all at the same time.

She stopped before she could close the container.

"Was that everything?" she asked, trying to adopt a lighter tone, but her throat was too strained.

She swallowed, flexing her fingers as she tried to calm herself down.

"Yes," Kyoko answered gently, looking at the register screen pointed towards her for the total cost before handing the other girl her card.

It was clear that the conversation was over.

When Tsuna handed her her card back, Kyoko decided to wrap her hands around the other girl's smaller limb, making sure to meet her bewildered gaze when she looked up at her.

"You didn't deserve it."

And with that, the redhead grabbed the container and waltzed out the bakery, Tsuna's eyes trailing after her.

* * *

 _ **June 10**_

 _ **Wednesday 2215**_

Mochida let out a growl of irritation as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Once again, he'd tried to get into the classroom to see the girlfriend that's been ignoring him for quite some time, and once again he was brutally turned away at the door. Thankfully, he hasn't shoved away this time but it was bad enough.

What kind of person deliberately keeps a man from his girlfriend? It just didn't work.

Growling again, Mochida kicked the wall separating the hallway from the classroom, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he ran his hand through his hair, brain going faster than it's ever been forced to as he tried to understand just what was happening.

What had turned the class against him so violently?

Shaking his head, he looked up and froze.

There was no way…

He'd seen her go up in flames for fuck's sake!

And yet, there she was, walking down the corridor towards him with her face pointed towards her open bag, looking for something, and appearing as though absolutely nothing had happened to her, not one blemish as far as Mochida could tell.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

It must be some sort of hallucination.

That was when she looked up, her eyes locking with his, and he knew… he knew that it wasn't some kind of fucking hallucination.

The fear in her eyes was too real.

And that scar on her jaw…

He had put it there.

That did it, his eyes narrowed at the freak who was somehow walking without so much as a blemish on her, not even looking as though she'd gotten skin grafting at the hospital after having spontaneously burst into flames. Flames that he recalled had been impossible to put out as the news-person had said after it had happened.

He'd forced himself to sit through that report, wondering what the fuck had happened.

He'd thought her remains had burned down with the rest of the fire, but here she was, standing right in front of him looking terrified as the day he left her in that alley.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

Why his girlfriend was suddenly ignoring him, why her class was fighting to keep him away from their home-room, why everyone in school seemed to be glaring at him whenever they passed him in the corridors…

It was all. Her. Fault.

Almost as if realizing his thought process, Useless's hands clenched around the straps of her bag and spun around on her heel, immediately setting off down the corridor as if someone had set the building on fire.

An angry smirk spread across Mochida's face.

Fire…

Let's see if he can set her ablaze again.

Smirk still in place, Mochida sett off after the retreating figure, shoving aside any student that may get in his way as he followed Useless weave her way through the crowd with an ease that she really, really shouldn't possess.

But then again, one shouldn't be capable of setting themselves ablaze either.

Being more athletic than the tiny girl, Mochida quickly caught up to her in a conveniently empty corridor, catching her by the wrist and using the momentum of her forced stop to shove her up against the wall, pinning her by the wrists and leaning in close to her face. He took great pleasure in seeing her so out of breath, not to mention the absolute fear in her eyes.

"So you're the cause of my misfortune?" Mochida growled, making Useless turn his head away from him, her eyes shut tightly. "Huh, freak?"

She flinched violently at the word.

Huh… so she knows what a freak she is… good.

"Let me go..." her weak voice filtered in through the silence, keeping most of her face hidden by her birds nest for hair.

Mochida let out a breathy laugh.

"I don't think I will," he growled, his hands tightening around her wrists. "Because you see..." he leaned in even closer, his breath moving her hairs away across her face. "I believe that you need to be taught a lesson." his eyes flickered down to the scar on her jaw and found himself laughing again. "Another lesson."

The girl's hands tightened into fists, her arms straining to try and push him away, and he had to say, her arms were stronger than he had originally thought.

Of course, she wasn't anywhere near strong enough to actually push him off.

"Get off!" she screamed, but it did little more than make him laugh.

"Freaks are not allowed in this school you know," he growled through bursts of laughter, eyes wandering over her skin as he tried to find any mark to tell that her skin had once been covered in fire, but he couldn't see anything on the skin that he could see.

Useless released a breathy huff.

"Since when did you read the school rules?"

Mochida stared down at her. She was still scared, he could tell that much, she was squirming in an almost calculated manner, which was odd in and of itself as he could actually feel how his grip on her wrists was slipping.

Where did she learn that?

The anger roared in his veins, his grip tightening even more. The pleasure returned at the pained flinch runs run across her body.

"Don't try to be smart with me!" he hissed, giving the girl a violent shake, her head slamming against the wall before he pinned her hands back at the side of her heads, his eyes falling towards the lining of her collar.

Should he remove some of her clothing?

Maybe there is some sign of the fire hidden underneath those layers…

What the fuck is he thinking? Why would he want to see Useless's disgusting body? Who was he to care if she had burn-scars on her or not, he knew what he saw, there is a scar on the town from where she'd combusted for heaven's sake, he had plenty of proof even though some kind of physical evidence on her.

Then again… the lack of proof just makes her all the freakier.

Again, the girl huffed, a lock of hair flying away from her face, still refusing to look at him, and truthfully, that was more than alright with him.

"Seriously, if you don't let me go," she groaned as Mochida tightened his hands. "You'll regret it."

"Oh, what are you going to do?" Mochida laughed with a roll of his eyes. "Spontaneously combust?" he watched as the color drained away from her face, his head falling forward against her chest as he kept on chuckling. "What would everyone say when they find out that Dame-Tsuna burst into flames and lived to tell the tale?"

Breathing heavily, the girl raised her head slightly, but her response was not something that Mochida had expected.

"They would set you up for mental rehabilitation."

If he didn't hate her enough before, he sure did now.

"Don't try to act tough!" he almost screamed in her face, his hands tightening even more around her wrists to the point where he could practically see how her circulation was being cut off, her eyes tightening even more. "We both know I terrify you." he breathed, leaning in even closer to her face, taking in how pale her skin saw. "Would you start burning again if I remind you of exactly what we did to you that afternoon, Freak?"

She was trembling, violently, and…

Was her skin heating up?

"Hey." Suddenly, a hand landed on Mochida's shoulder, yanking him away from Tsuna. Suddenly, Mochida was staring down at the angry face of a familiar young man with silver colored hair and a surprisingly intimidating stare. "Back off the girl." the growl hit him in the face in the form of huffs of breath.

Mochida stared at the dude, completely confused.

This dude has been completely distant from EVERYONE as Mochida has seen him, he knew of this because he'd seen him around the archery field every once in a while and he'd seemed at most annoyed at the attention he was getting from those around him.

Fuck he hated him…

With THOSE looks he was a waste of space for those who were actively looking for dates.

"What do you care?" Mochida found himself snidely replying before his thoughts caught up with his mouth, tilting his head as he smirked down at the shorter man. "She your bitch?"

The green eyes narrowed in irritation.

"Your grammar is atrocious." Grokudera drawled, rolling his eyes in absolute annoyance. "She's no such thing." he locked eyes with the girl in question, jerking his head down the corridor and she couldn't have caught on faster, immediately taking down the hallway. "But I do owe her, so back off." he pierced the kendo captain with his best warning glare.

The idiot didn't seem to catch on.

Instead, he noticed that the messy haired girl had taken the opportunity to skedaddle, his eyes narrowing as he stared over the top of the transfer-students head.

"Hey Useless!" he called out, noticing with a sick sense of pleasure how the girl's narrow shoulders stiffened, drawing in towards her neck at the sound of his voice. "This is far from ove-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence.

Before he had the chance to blink, Mochida suddenly found himself with his front pressed up against the concrete wall of the corridor, his dominant arm painfully twisted behind his back, his knees bent as a forearm dug into the back of his neck.

He couldn't keep the pained gasp from escaping his mouth.

"What the fuck!?" he screamed, feeling calm puffs of air hitting the shell of his ear.

"Listen here." the transfer-students voice filtered in through the haze of pain. "You stay the fuck away from that girl you hear me?" the grip around his wrist tightened; at this point, Mochida was legitimately afraid the dude would break it. "She's already going through enough with a brain thing without you harassing her."

Mochida didn't get the chance to respond.

The second the silver-haired guy had said what he wanted, he let go of Mochida's arm and practically threw him to the ground, not even sparing him another glance as he set off down the corridor towards what Mochida's pained brain could just barely recognize as the way towards those two's home-room, where the girl had disappeared.

Mochida could just stare after him, clutching at his wrist as he went over just where in his life he had gone wrong.

Where had things stopped going his way?

* * *

Tsuna had turned the corner and fallen against the wall, heavy breathing as she desperately tried to reign in the frantic tingling in the tips of her fingers.

Her whole body felt heavy, which was strange considering the tingling sensation usually made her feel lighter, but not this time. Her knees were weak, barely capable of holding her weight as she braced herself against the concrete, her hands slowly moving up to cover her eyes.

She needed to calm down.

She needed to calm down, now.

She felt hot all over, almost feverish as breath after breath filled her lungs. She forced herself to take even deeper breaths to try and force herself to calm down, swallowing down the saliva building up inside her mouth as she threw her head back, her fists pressed against the wall behind her, her eyes once again closed.

Finally, she felt the tingles fading away.

Relieved, Tsuna let out a long sigh, her head falling back against her chest, her knees almost buckling completely beneath her as her nerves finally unraveled.

Why did that have to happen?

Shaking her head, not wanting to think about the past couple of minutes until she was in the presence of someone who could handle her in case she completely lost control of the flames, and that person was not anywhere within her line of vision.

Calm down…

Pealing herself away from the wall, Tsuna kept going down the corridor.

"Hey, wait!" the voice almost made her jump out of her skin, although… surprisingly, the voice did not fill her with fear as one would have expected.

She did stop, turning around just in time to spot Gokudera's surprisingly swift moving figure approaching her from around the corner.

Once he realized that she had stopped, she slowed down as well.

"What did that guy do to you?"

Why did he care?

Those were the first words that popped into Tsuna's head and she just couldn't get them out. She couldn't even understand why he was asking her to begin with, the whole school pretty much knew at this point, or at least believe that they did.

She shook her head at him, her fingers tightening around her bag straps.

"Nothing," she replied, turning her back towards him and kept on walking, hoping that that would be the end of it.

Apparently, Gokudera would have none of that.

"Freezing at the fight of him and running away like he set your clothes on fire is not 'nothing'." he argued, turning her back around towards him, invading her personal space.

Tsuna had to keep herself from rolling her eyes at his words.

Oh, the irony.

"I don't have to tell you anything," she said, adjusting the strap of her bad, turning away from him and kept walking, trying to find an alternate route towards home-room. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors." she glanced over her shoulder. "Many versions of them." she let out a sigh, pausing for a moment to choose which turn to take. "I've heard them all."

A groan sounded through the silence before a hand wrapped around her elbow, although it wasn't forceful, it was more gentle than anything, using the momentum to spin her around rather than shove her into the wall.

"And since when have rumors been 100% accurate?" the delinquent asked, hand still wrapped around her elbow, although he did remove it once he realized what he was doing. "Look." he stuffed his hands into his pockets, glancing towards the wall as he chewed on the cigarette in his mouth. "I don't want to make a conclusion without collecting all the facts first." he finally met her eyes once he finished the sentence.

Tsuna couldn't help the sarcastic comment from slipping from her lips.

"Oh, so NOW you fact check?"

Gokudera groaned at her words.

"I deserve that." he shook his head, moving to lean against the wall as he removed the cigarette from between his lips, optioning to hold it between his index and middle-finger instead, looking the picture of someone regretting something they had done.

Wow… that threw Tsuna for a loop.

When did that happen?

"Yes..." she finally decided to respond, her hands falling from the straps of her bag. "Yes you do." she slowly moved towards the newest addition to her class, although she optioned to position herself right in front of him, closer to the wall he was not leaning against than anything.

His piercing eyes followed her every movement.

She swallowed heavily, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"He and his friends beat me up a while back..." she started slowly, refusing to look at him. "But you already knew that."

Nodding, Gokudera pushed himself off of the wall.

"I did." he agreed. "But to what extent?"

Licking her lips, Tsuna slowly tilted her head to show off the scar on her jaw.

"It's pretty obvious a knife was involved..." she started slowly, righting her head as she allowed herself to collapse against the wall, her hand rubbing at her arm. "The guy was more than ready to gouge out my eye with it..."

Gokudera's eyes widened, staring at Tsuna in disbelief.

"Why hasn't be been expelled?!" he screamed, throwing his arms out, causing Tsuna to flinch. "That is BEYOND arrest-worthy." he took a step towards her. "You're pretty much beloved by every teacher and perfect in this building, it must have been doable." he looked at her in exasperation.

Tsuna brushed her hair behind her ear.

"I..." her lip caught between her teeth. "I haven't..." she groaned at her own inability to form a proper sentence, bouncing on the balls of her feet in annoyance before letting out a long sigh. "I haven't exactly brought the situation to light."

"Why?!" Gokudera immediately shouted.

He immediately regretted his decision, tremors shooting through her body at the mere thought of bringing what happened to her into the open in detail, the prospect caused a lump to form in her throat, making it a bit harder to breathe, tears building in the corners of her eyes, and if it was one thing Gokudera couldn't handle, it was people crying.

It was too soon to reveal it.

"Okay!" he called out, walking up to her slowly, gently setting a hand down on top of her shoulders, lowering his head low enough to look her in the eyes through the curtain of hair. "Okay," he repeated, giving her shoulders a light squeeze. "You won't talk about it." he let out a long breath. "But… men like that aren't worth your tears."

Tsuna quickly wiped at the bottom of her eyes, trying to stop the tears before they fell.

"He's alone now, he's got no real power over you anymore." Gokudera continued, allowing his hands to fall off of her shoulders.

Tsuna tilted her head in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

Gokudera stepped away from her, stuffing his hands into his pockets, eyes still locked with hers.

"The only way to get over the fear of a person is if you approach them." he glanced towards the turn where both of them had left Mochida, his eyes darkening at the thought of the man. "Beat them in a way that allows you to take back the control they have over you."

Tsuna's brow furrowed.

She was sure that a person didn't have to actually beat someone, but then again… beating someone doesn't necessarily mean that they actually have to physically beat them up. However…. She looked at Gokudera, the young man standing in front of her probably saw that as the only possible option to get rid of the fear of a person.

She was learning more and more about him the longer she interacted with him.

She shook her head, trying to rid herself of thoughts she didn't need at that very moment.

"I couldn't do that..." Tsuna breathed, her fingers clenching around her elbows.

Gokudera let out a sigh at the guarded stance, his hand coming up to ruffle his hair on one side of his face as he let out a small breath of annoyance, shaking his head slightly before he stepped up to the girl, invading her personal bubble.

"You could," he said, voice barely more than a whisper. "If you let yourself."

Tsuna didn't know why, but she wound up staring at the young man in front of her, looking him right in the eyes as the seconds ticked by, desperately trying to decipher where all of this was coming from.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked, tilting her head as she looked up at the young man, cautiously taking a step towards him.

Gokudera blinked, gulped, looked away from her as he stared at the wall looking every bit as unsettled as she'd ever seen him. The only thing that was missing now was that hair-ruffle thing that she'd come to associate with hi- oh, there it is.

"Maybe I feel guilty, I don't know..." the young man breathed, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

For a moment, Tsuna could see true vulnerability in those olive-green orbs.

Only for a moment though, he quickly straightened himself, squaring his shoulders and looking down at her yet again.

"Now leave me alone!" and just like that, he stalked away from her.

Tsuna was embarrassed to admit that she wound up just standing there for a couple of seconds, the words sinking into her head like they were going through molasses, her head still tilted as she blinked away the passage of time.

Finally, the words registered.

Quickly, she spun around, catching sight of the retreating silver colored head a few meters down the hall, his one hand stuffed into his pocket.

"YOU APPROACHED ME!" Tsuna found herself calling after him, raising her voice in what she knew to be the first time in a long, long while.

The only sign that he'd heard her was the dismissive flick of his wrist, his index and middle finger extended.

Then, he rounded the corner and Tsuna could no longer see him.

And yet… a small, almost teasing smile spread across her lips, her hands finding the strap of her bag as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, actively keeping herself from showing a too wide of a smile.

"Looks like I was right about you after all," she muttered to herself, throwing one last look down where the transfer student had disappeared. "Gokudera Hayato."

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know if I wound up becoming a bit sloppy towards the end there. It was a scene that I had been looking forward to writing for quite some time, but once I actually got around to writing it, turns out that it was a lot harder than I had originally thought…**

 **Also, I so did not intend to write from Mochida's pov, fucking hate that guy, I did plan on that encounter though, it NEEDED to happen.**

 **Anyway, PLEASE tell me what you think, I'll try to keep writing for as long as I can and I'll see to try and get the next chapter up as quickly as possible.**

 **I have a whole summer, let's hope I don't waste it.**

 **This has been**

 **A message from her Ladyship**


	18. Scene 18: Unforeseen Developments

**A/N: Alrightie then… I managed to finish another one!**

 **I finished this thing in a day… and it was more due to the fact that I could think of nothing else to do… even the internet is boring me at this point, it is depressing.**

 **Anyway, I actually liked working on this chapter and I really hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

 **Scene 18:**

 **Unforeseen developments**

 _ **June 11**_

 _ **Thursday 2215**_

She's been walking on eggshells all day.

Every turn in the building, she would turn to check if a certain captain of the kendo team could be seen, and even when she couldn't see him, she just couldn't bring herself to calm down. Her fingertips had been tingling ever since she woke up that morning and no matter what she did, she just couldn't get it to calm down, it was driving her mad.

Thankfully, she managed to get through the day without catching sight of the bastard or catching fire, which was always nice.

She had just exited school property, about to walk across the road towards the other side of the street when a scream cut through the air.

"LOOK OUT!" a hand wrapped tightly around her upper arm, yanking her back into a surprisingly firm chest.

She barely had the time to blink before something zoomed right over where she'd just been walking, sending her hair and skirt flying from the wind it created. Looking after it, she noticed it was a hovercar… going WAY above the speed limit.

Usually, hovercars automatically adjusted to the speed limit of certain stretches of road, but that car must have rigged the automatic settings, which would also explain her almost getting run over by it as the automatic functions of the solar-powered roadway would have alerted the vehicle of someone being on the road and adjusted the speed accordingly to ensure that she couldn't have gotten run over.

Why someone would temper with the automatic functions, Tsuna had no idea.

"You fucking idiot," the obvious man attached to the arm wrapped around her upper arm. "Watch where you're going will ya?!" it was a familiar voice.

Very familiar.

Slowly, Tsuna turned around and, true enough, she found herself looking into the striking olive eyes of one Gokudera Hayato.

He did not appreciate the action, especially as her eyes lingered for what was probably longer than necessary.

"What are you looking at?"

She let out a sigh of annoyance, pushing herself away from him.

"Why do you keep doing this?" she asked, her voice lower than what she's used to.

"Doing what?" Gokudera asked, reflecting her annoyance right back at her.

"Help me," that stopped him short, his eyes widening just a fraction as she looked up at him, her arms hanging at her sides. "You've expressed time and time again that you don't like me, so you should be doing the opposite of what you're doing." she couldn't stop herself from giving the delinquent a shove to the shoulder.

Gokudera huffed at her words.

"I'm paying you back," he replied, stepping away to fetch his hoverbike that Tsuna just now realized was leaning against the gatepost of the school. "And why should I sabotage for you just because I don't like you?" he gave her an unamused look over the shoulder as he activated the hover function on the bike, not actually activating the motor yet. "I'm quite happy pretending you don't exist."

Tsuna couldn't help the half-hearted chuckle that burst from her chest.

"If only everyone else had the same mindset."

Gokudera froze, both his hands on the handles of his bike.

"Everyone..." he seemed to be rifling through his memories. "Right..." he nodded slowly to himself. "You're just picking yourself up from being bullied, aren't you?"

Tsuna really wasn't surprised that he knew, her apparent miraculous change was something of a hot topic within the school building after so many weeks had passed, people seem to still be unable to wrap their heads around her improvements.

She crossed her arms over her chest.

"That's hard to do when it's the only school-life you've known," she stated, more to herself than anything.

Gokudera stopped short.

"The only..." he couldn't seem to bring himself to finish the sentence. "Just how long were you bullied for?" his olive eyes pinned on her.

"I'm sure you've heard." Tsuna sighed, turning to walk away from him.

He would not have that, however, immediately grabbing onto her shoulder, turning back around to face him, forcing his face closer to hers.

"There's no way I'm going to believe that you've been bullied for eleven years!" he locked eyes with hers, his hands no doubt clenched at his sides if the stiffness of his shoulders were anything to go by.

Tsuna licked her lips.

"Not that drastic..." she began softly, brushing her hair behind her ear as she watched Gokudera's overall stature relax somewhat at her words. "It's more like… ten and a half."

The stiffness was back.

"What?"

"I can't even really remember when it started." Tsuna quickly continued, turning away again as she kept walking, only taking a smaller note of her classmate following after her, leading his hoverbike at his side as he hung onto every word she was saying. "But according to my Mom..." she swallowed heavily. "I started to not quite like going to school anymore the year I was turning 5, so I can only imagine that that's when it all began."

"How are you like this!?" he suddenly screamed, making her flinch, the tingling returning for just a split second. "If you've been treated like shit for literally two-thirds of your life, how in the living hell can you bring yourself to care about anyone!?"

It took a moment before she could bring herself to look at him, and when she did, she allowed herself to really study the bewilderment on his face to try and decipher just how she should reply to his question, what he really wanted out of his outburst.

Finally, it clicked.

He wasn't asking her how she had kept herself from beating everyone up.

He was asking her how she could keep on living at all.

Asking her how she gathered the energy to wake up every morning as getting herself to school, to sit in a room full of people that she knew very well couldn't stand her for several years without completely breaking apart under their less-than-stellar treatment of her. Where his past had turned him into a hot-headed delinquent, she had taken a different route altogether.

And he wanted to know how.

She took a deep breath, preparing herself mentally.

"I have three motto's." she started, causing Gokudera to jerk a little after such a long moment of prolonged silence.

He straightened himself quickly.

"Why three?"

"Because I need them," Tsuna answered, not missing a beat.

The look she gave him was enough for him not to question her.

"Anyway..." she let out a breath, brushing her hair behind her ear. "One of them is more of a life choice that morphed into a motto as I caught myself having to repeat it almost every day like a mantra."

"What?" Gokudera tilted his head, almost daring her to continue.

She narrowed her eyes up at him, taking the challenge.

"There's always good people in the word..." she replied steadily. "If you can't find one, be one."

For the longest moment, the two teens just stared at one another, eyes locked as Gokudera's genius brain processes what she'd just said.

Tsuna watched at the understanding spread across his handsome features, and she could feel. She could feel that it wasn't just understanding of her motto, but understanding for her entire character.

Finally, they had reached their common ground.

"Can you fight?"

The question came out of nowhere, Tsuna actually found herself flinching at it.

"Excuse me?" she asked, blinking.

"Can you fight?" Gokudera repeated, his eyes running up and down her body in what SHOULD have made her feel uncomfortable, but she was more observant than that. His eyes didn't hold lust or even interest, they were studying, almost scanning. His pupils would linger on places like her biceps, thighs, and stomach places a man didn't usually linger on.

Okay, the thighs you could linger on, but Gokudera looked more… curious than anything.

Like a scientist overviewing test results.

It was creepy in a different kind of way.

"Y-you're kidding me, right?" Tsuna finally answered, stumbling away from the man.

"Right..." he breathed, removing his eyes from her as his one hand raised towards his face, his fingers folding around his chin. "You can throw a pretty good punch, but you're not a fighter..." he turned away from her. "I'll have to think about this."

Tsuna's eyebrows furrowed.

"About what?"

He didn't answer her.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

And with that said, he stalked away from her, his hand still on his chin all the while apparently lost in his raging mind, not having enough brain power to register that he was still leading his bike instead of getting on it apparently.

Tsuna didn't know if she liked this turn of events.

* * *

 _ **June 12**_

 _ **Friday 2215**_

True to what the man had said, Gokudera approached Tsuna the very next day as the student population was making their way out of the building.

Well… he didn't so much approach her as he suddenly grabbed onto her wrist as she was exiting the main building.

"Come with me," he said, meeting her eyes.

"Why?" she answered more on instinct than anything, twisting her wrist in his grip. Strangely enough, though, it wasn't that solid of a grip, if she wanted to, she could have easily slipped out of it no problem.

"Just do it," he told her, immediately setting off to drag her away from the entrance.

Of all the places he could have dragged her, the empty indoor shooting range of the archery club was not something that had struck Tsuna. Of course, she'd known that the delinquent was on the archery team from all the squealing she'd heard from the female population within the school, and apparently, he was good at it, but she'd never expected to be dragged there on the one day the team did not have practice.

Once inside, Gokudera finally lets go of her, turning towards her with a serious look in his eyes.

"What are your physical capabilities?" he asked, throwing her off for a moment.

"What?" she asked, blinking.

"Your physical capabilities," he repeated, though not unkindly, which in and of itself was rather strange. "What are they?"

Tsuna shook her head, trying to clear her mind.

"Well..." she started, her fighters clenching around the straps of her bag. "I've taken ballet classes for ten years," she explained slowly, watching as the delinquent nodded along in apparent understanding, though the look on his face told her that he was now in deep thought.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Why are you asking?"

For a moment, the young man didn't say a thing. His fingers pinching his chin as he actually began to pace back and forth in front of her. Then… he started talking.

"I know for a fact that your punches pack quite a bit of power for someone of your smaller stature..." his voice was barely more than a mutter, it was clear that he didn't intend for her to comment on whatever it was he was saying. She suspected any word from her would ruin his thought process, no matter how weird she found it. "Add in possible overall body strength, mass, muscle build and the possible flexibility of said muscles..." he suddenly stopped, turning towards her on his heel. "Excuse me for a moment."

Tsuna had no time to say anything, suddenly, he was kneeling in front of her.

Before she had the time to do anything, his long fingers caught onto her thighs, squeezing along her muscles. His face remained as it had been seconds before.

Tsuna felt the heat rising to her face.

"Where do you think you're touching!?" she screamed, shoving the young man away from her, she stumbled backward as well, her heart pounding in her chest as she watched the man peel himself off of the ground.

She could see it on his face that his mind was working faster than a normal brain should.

"Yes..." he finally nodded, getting off of the floor completely, brushing off his pants as he did so. "I can work with this."

Tsuna's fingers clenched around the fabric covering her chest, trying to get her heart-rate under control.

"What are you on about?"

Gokudera sighed exasperatedly.

"As I cannot stand to see you cowering at the sight of that pathetic excuse of a man, I'm going to do something about it." determination burning in his olive eyes, Gokudera marched over towards her, causing her to take a few steps back, but that did nothing to stop him.

His eyes locked with hers.

"Punch me."

Tsuna blinked.

"What?"

She couldn't have heard right, she just couldn't have.

Annoyance flashed over Gokudera's face.

"Punch me," he repeated.

"I'm not going to do that!" Tsuna didn't know if she was more annoyed or slightly scared at his request. Why would he ask her something like that?

Gokudera's hands found their way into his hair, ruffling it in annoyance.

"Fine." he breathed, pinning her with a look of what she could only describe as… reluctant irritation? Like… he was irritated in a reluctant kind of way if that made sense. "But remember, you asked for this."

Before Tsuna had the chance to ask what the young man was going on about, he showed her.

Suddenly, his long-fingered hands landed on her hips, his face hovered inches away from her own as his striking eyes narrowed in what Tsuna could recognize as a sultry look. Once again, she found herself frozen under this unfamiliar attention.

She felt her skin burning underneath his touch as he slowly moved them over her, his fingers lightly pressing down as though he were playing a piano making strange tingles spread throughout her body, something she just couldn't understand. It wasn't until she could feel the young man gently push her backward, his hands wandering lower than she was comfortable with, that something finally snapped.

This was becoming WAY too much like a certain OTHER scene in the park…

Her mind cleared faster than she could blink.

"What do you think you're doing!?" she found herself screaming, yanking herself out of the delinquents surprisingly gentle hold, her arm rearing back, her fist clenching and shooting forward towards the delinquent's face.

Suddenly, the momentum stopped.

She didn't know when her eyes had closed, but now she was opening them to see Gokudera looking somewhat pleased with how she had reacted, his larger hand folded around her fist just inches away from his nose.

"Wha…?" she breathed, staring at their hands in bewilderment.

"There we go." Gokudera cut her off with a satisfied nod, "Now you see this," he said, moving her fist in a small circle in front of his face. "It was quite easy for me to block your punch when I was ready for it." he let go of her fist, instead moving his hand to gently grab her wrist and move it downwards. "If the bastard reacts this way, how do you respond?"

Tsuna felt as though someone had short-circuited her brain.

"I… I don't know." came her timid response.

To his credit, Gokudera didn't look at all annoyed with her, he didn't even look surprised.

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Don't worry," he said gently. "By the time I'm through with you, you will know."

Tsuna stared up at him in bewilderment.

Why would he do this?

He had practically hated her for so long now, and suddenly he wanted to help her defend herself against arseholes? What was going on here?

"Now," Gokudera said, letting go of her wrist. "Do it again."

* * *

"Are you sure you should be doing this?" Gokudera suddenly asked a few hours later when the two of them sat on the wooden floor in the middle of the large room, sweat was dripping from her brow, all the while he didn't even look out of breath.

The question had come when Tsuna had sat down close to him, removing her uniform shirt to reveal the pale orange camisole underneath. It had been a little difficult to do so due to the sweat covering her skin and she'd been so focused on getting it off that she hadn't noticed those olive-green eyes widening at the sight of her bare skin.

She ran one of the schools spare towels over her neck as she turned to look at the transfer-student.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Olive eyes narrowed at her words, his fingers tightening on the fabric of his slacks.

"Well for starters, I could attack you at any given moment."

Tsuna's eyes narrowed in obvious disbelief, letting out a long sigh as she shook her head, leaning back on her hands as she looked up at the ceiling. She could feel the young man's eyes peering at her profile but she tried not to think about it as she brushed her hair behind her ear.

"I know you won't." she retorted, her voice devoid of any form of hesitation. She was one hundred percent sure about what she was telling him.

"Really?" Gokudera asked, sounding beyond doubtful, raising an eyebrow.

Tsuna nodded to herself as a reply, only… she immediately felt Gokudera's presence move closer to her, his hand reaching out to slowly move her damaged, dangled, hair away from the side of her face. She could feel his breath against her skin for what must have been the… fifth? Time now, and she still couldn't find it in her to be TOO uncomfortable with the presence.

Just what was going on?

"I have already forced a kiss on you," he whispered against her now visible ear.

It was then that he acted.

Within a second, Tsuna was lying on the wooden floor, her one foot flying into the air as Gokudera manoeuvred himself in between her legs, her wrists pinned on either side of her face for what she felt was the hundredth time that day, only this time it was not for the sake of training how to get out of such a situation, she could tell from the positioning of his fingers on her arms. The second he touched her, it felt like all the strength left those limbs.

It probably would have been frightening…

But she wasn't.

For the second time that day, he leaned in closer to her face, that ever-present frown seemingly etched into his skin.

"How about now?" he asked, his mouth barely moving, the sound only reaching Tsuna due to their close proximity, his naturally gravelly voice sending shivers running down her spine. "Still sure I won't go through with it?"

He was trying to make her scared.

He was trying to entice SOME kind of negative reaction from her.

And it wasn't working.

"Yes." was her immediate answer, her voice as clear as crystal, so sure of what she was saying even in this position of hopelessness she'd found herself in.

Gokudera's glare intensified, his grip on her wrists tightening.

She couldn't keep the winch at bay.

"HOW!?" Gokudera's angered question echoed through the gymnasium, bouncing off the walls as Tsuna calmed down from the violent flinch that raked through her from the suddenness of the loud outburst, turning her head away for a split second before she locked eyes with him once more. "You don't even know me!"

Despite his screaming, despite the position he had her in, Tsuna felt herself unable to become frightened in front of this young man.

It had always baffled her just how little Gokudera tended to make her uncomfortable no matter what he did, even after he had forced a kiss on her she couldn't find it in herself to be frightened by him, always feeling an underlying sense of calm despite any other sensation the delinquent.

For a moment, she just laid there, staring up into those piercing eyes.

"I don't have to," Tsuna answered with a steady voice.

Gokudera was a little taken aback at the gentle, soothing tone she adopted.

"All I know is that my brain isn't blaring in alarm whenever you're around like it does when Mochida-sempai is within viewing distance." was it just him or did her voice sound slightly darker than it usually was? "And that's all I need." Tsuna finished her explanation, hoping to get through to Gokudera's notably intelligent brain behind the now mellowed out hot-air that had made up the majority of their interactions.

Shocked, his grip loosened around her wrists.

"You..." he muttered as he raised himself from hovering inches away from her face. "My appearance should set off more than that Mochida-teme..." his hands slid away from her arms, immediately, she could feel the strength returning to the limbs it one of the strangest feelings she remembered feeling.

The delinquent removed himself from on top of her, almost collapsing at her side in absolute silence.

Slowly, Tsuna raised herself off of the floor, turning towards the silver-haired man, her lower lip catching between her teeth as she debated what she wanted to do. Finally, she reached out a hand, setting it down on his shoulder, forcing him to turn towards her.

"Your choice of attire doesn't say everything about you," she said softly, pulling pointedly at the sleeve of his t-shirt before her hand wandered to between his shoulder blades, her body moving the tiniest bit closer to him. It was strange how comfortable she was getting around this young man. "It just tells us a small aspect of your personality." her head tilted to get a clearer view of his face. "And even that is debatable due to the fact that the clothes can be picked by someone else or anywhere really."

Truthfully, Tsuna was wondering why she was still talking.

She hadn't known this guy that long, but… she liked being around him.

She liked hanging out with him…

How strange was that?

Her fingers pressed into his skin for a moment, her eyes moving to the limb as she debated if she should continue or not, to ask the question.

Eventually, she decided to just go for it.

"You..." she started slowly. "You make yourself out to be a bad-boy, but you're a gentleman aren't you?"

His eyes widened.

"How did you-?" she didn't allow him to continue. Doing so will send his mind spiraling and with his unknown past, who knows what kind of conclusions he could reach.

One worse than the other she bet.

"You can learn a lot about a person if you just know where to look." she drew her knees up against her chest, allowing her chin to rest on top of them as she kept her gaze pinned on his face. "I've known since the first day I saw you."

Calming down, Gokudera's face morphed into a more… curious expression.

"You observe me?"

"I observe everyone," Tsuna replied easily. "For caution."

For a moment, the two teens fell silent.

Finally, it broke.

"Huh..." Gokudera muttered under his breath.

Turning away from her classmate, Tsuna scotched a bit away to retrieve her discarded bag, scotching back once she had the straps in her hands, not wanting the delinquent to believe that she was distancing herself from him.

She didn't quite like how careful she needed to be with him.

She opened her bag and reached a hand inside as she turned back to the young man. And froze.

Her breath caught in her throat.

She watched as a small, sincere smile spread across his aristocratic features, smoothing out the harsh lines around his eyes that made up his previously assumed-to-be permanent glaring face, his lips parting to release a light breathy chuckle.

A chuckle that turned into soft laughter.

It felt as though she'd just been struck by lightning, her eyes wide as she stared at the other teen, unable to get herself to move. A different kind of warmth than her Anima filled her as she watched the delinquent finally drop his guard and allow himself to relax in her presence, falling back on his hands as he kept on laughing.

Only one other person her age had ever laughed around her, not at her, and that was Yamamoto, but the man was known to be a very happy person, it was his image.

This guy, however, the closest thing to a smile anyone had ever gotten was a smirk that told them they had seconds to run.

It was like a breath of fresh air.

When Gokudera calmed down enough to finally look at her again, his eyes held something of a mischievous yet resigned glimpse to them, but there was yet another layer that she had a harder time to place. It was similar to the look the prefects gave Hibari whenever they saw him walking past. Like… loyalty mixed in with adoration… but Tsuna couldn't for the life of her understand why someone would be looking at HER that way.

Perhaps she was reading him wrong.

"Aren't you just a giant ball of surprises Juudaime..." Gokudera finally calmed down enough to say, his gravelly voice sounding much gentler than before, and shock of all shocks, it even sounded borderline teasing.

She found herself jerking a little at his words.

"Juudaime?" she repeated, frowning a little at the choice of word. "What's with the nickname?"

"Not telling." Gokudera immediately replied with a lighthearted chuckle. "We all need our secrets, don't we?" when he said this, he looked her straight in the eyes as if daring her to tell him differently.

She got this feeling that Gokudera knew that she was hiding something big from everyone around her, and the thought did not sit well with her.

Still, though, she had to agree with him.

Looking at the ease radiating off of him, she couldn't help the small smile that spread across her own lips, falling back to lie on the ground as a light laugh of her own burst from her lungs. It was a strange sensation.

"What's so funny?" Gokudera asked, watching as Tsuna battled the messy and sweat-soaked fringe covering her face.

"I was right." Tsuna chuckled, allowing her hands to rest on top of her stomach.

"About what?" Gokudera frowned a little in confusion, but he remained relatively relaxed all the same, no ill meaning in either his voice or his gaze, it only made Tsuna want to smile all the more, though the one she already bore was beginning to hurt her cheeks.

"You," she answered simply, turning her attention back to her bag.

"What's that supposed to mean?" for a sentence that should come from someone angry, he sounded surprisingly at ease.

Tsuna chuckled again as her hand closed around her gem.

"You figure it out." she teased, throwing a glance over her shoulder.

She froze, her eyes locking onto the wall in front of her.

She'd just teased someone…

When was the last time she teased someone?

When had she been comfortable enough around someone to be teasing instead of sarcastic?

She was brought out of her musing by the familiar rhythmic buzzing from her gem, forcing her to turn her attention back to the device in her hand.

Sure enough, there was a message.

Of course, from her mother, who else would think to message her?

Who else had her contact information even?

 _ **Mom.**_

 _Sweetheart, I need your help again._

 _Swing by Crescent as quickly as possible will you?_

Sighing, she let the gem slide back down into her bag.

"I have to go," she said, picking up her shirt from the floor and stuffing it into the bag as well, only barely paying attention to the guy behind her. "My Mother needs me at the bakery."

"Bakery?" came Gokudera's questioning voice from behind her.

"Yes," she confirmed, zipping the bag back up and getting up off of the floor, she slid her arm through the straps like always. "It's usually fondant painting and other decorations." she walked over to where she'd previously discarded her shoes. "I have a steadier hand than she does." with the shoes on, she turned back towards Gokudera, a light smile playing on her lips. "I'll see you around."

Gokudera just chuckled, leaning his arm on the top of his knee, giving her one of those half-hearted salute things with a side smile on his handsome face.

"Until then..." his smile turned towards the smug side. "Juudaime."

"Seriously..." she muttered with a shake of her head, turning around towards the door. "What's with the nickname?"

Walking out of the building, Tsuna never noticed the pair of dark eyes following her until she disappeared out the gate-posts.

* * *

Gokudera only needed to remain seated on the floor for a few more minutes before the sound of shoes clicking against the surface echoed through the room. He didn't need to look up to know who it was, there could only be one person at this point.

"Well?" a deep voice asked from his side. "Have you finally reached a conclusion?"

"I have." the delinquent sighed, raising himself off of the ground, still not bothering to turn and look at the other man in the building, his eyes still pinned on where the girl had slipped out of sight. "And I would be honored if I could have her as my superior."

A deep chuckle resonated over the walls.

"Good," he commented, the smile he was most likely wearing could be heard on his voice.

A small frown etched into Gokudera's brow, his head tilting slightly.

"You knew I would eventually come around to her, didn't you?"

The only response he got for that question was a hum of agreement.

Sighing heavily, he crossed his arms over his chest.

"When do you plan on telling her?" he asked.

For a long moment, Gokudera thought the other man had left the building due to the overwhelming silence that followed his question, but then… the man finally spoke up.

"Not until she's got basic control over her bloodline." he sounded borderline annoyed for a split second. "And who knows how long that will take.

* * *

 **A/N: This is the longest chapter I've written in a long time, and I have to say that I am quite proud of it. I really enjoy writing about these two interacting with one another and the scenes came to me more naturally than others have in the past.**

 **PLEASE tell me what you think, I REALLY depend on your thoughts and encouragements to keep these updates coming, I really do struggle with self-motivation, often finding myself regretting each and every upload the second I've clicked that button, but I hold myself back. Not getting feedback depresses me greatly, I become really bummed when I don't hear what people think and that messes with my writing. I don't want to give you beautiful humans less than stellar material and I want to continue writing on this so please, whether it's good or bad, a nitpick or even an idea for the future, give it to me, I wanna hear ALL of it, a writer can only improve through the feedback they receive.**

 **Alright, enough of my (I'm pretty sure) depressed ass.**

 **I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as I can, don't know when, but I will be back, I love this and you people too much.**

 **This has been.**

 **A message from her ladyship.**


	19. Scene 19: Forced Smiles

**AN: I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY!**

 **I completely lost it. I haven't been able to write a coherent sentence that was not dialogue or for a school assignment for so long, it feels legitimately weird to write on a story again. Again, it is due to the reviews.**

 **Seriously, I cannot stress this enough, It is the reviews that keep this story alive. I suddenly decide to read the ones I've already gotten, or I get a longer one that I feel radiates interest that gives me actual critique, and suddenly I am overcome with the desire to start typing again, the motivation needs to come from the outside, or the interest is lost.**

 **On another note, I am once again studying, will be doing so for at least another year. And, I've finally received an appointment with a proper psychotherapist (teehee "Psycho The Rapist") instead of what I imagine would be the Swedish equivalent of a glorified guidance counselor, it takes WAY too long over here, but I am finally properly on the road of figuring out just how the fuck I am wired.**

 **I have come to realize that I regret EVERYTHING, even if I do something that made someone smile or thank me, I walk away and I'm overcome with this overwhelming sense of regret, it's very difficult to upload something that I've written, the fact that I'm actually proud of this is HUGE for me so please tell me what you think, I honestly NEED it.**

 **And I'm being negative, I don't wanna be negative, I don't like it when people are negative.**

 **Just read it, please.**

 **And forgive me for making you wait for so long.**

* * *

 **Scene 19:**

 **Forced Smiles**

 _ **June 15**_

 _ **Monday 2215**_

Tsuna stretched her hands up to the sky, feeling her spine pop back into place as she walked down the familiar road to school. She'd had a bad nights sleep, stiff feeling the stiffness of her back after the hours upon hours she'd been forced to meditate over the weekend, still coming up essentially empty in her grasp of her core, although she did have a better understanding on exactly where in her body she could find it and the time it took for her to reach it has dwindled to a few measly seconds where it had before taken at least half a minute.

Groaning, she cracked her neck, rubbing at the skin where she knew certain muscles were located, hoping to get at the very least SOME relief before she reached the school building.

Just as she lowered her arm, she felt the air shift behind her.

"Juudaime!" a familiar voice called out to her, followed by the familiar low humming of the hoverbike as it pulled up beside her.

Sure enough, there sat the familiar form of the transfer student, the sleeves of his hoodie rolled up to his elbows in the hot, late spring air. Tsuna really couldn't help her eyes lingering on the pale limbs as they rose to pull the helmet off of their owner.

Silver strands fell around an aristocratic face, but instead of the previously thought to be permanent glare etched onto his features, Tsuna was met with the most gentle expression.

It made her feel weird.

"You need a ride?" Gokudera's rough voice sounded through the air, forcing Tsuna out of her thoughts to pay more attention to what was going on around her.

For a while, she just looked at him, taking in the smile on his lips, the gentle curve of his eyebrows, and finally, the helmet held out towards her.

She couldn't help the scoff that slipped out of her throat, her eyes rolling, her weight moving to her one foot as she tilted her head to the side before the words materialized on her tongue.

"Still only have one helmet?" she asked, stepping up towards him.

Gokudera chuckled.

"Never had the need for another one."

Shaking her head, Tsuna accepted the head guard and got on the bike behind her classmate, already lifting the thing into the air to slide it over her messy head of hair.

"If this continues, I'm gonna make you get another one," she stated, wrapping her arms around Gokudera's waist, clutching at her own wrists as she allowed her feet to rise from the ground, looking at the side of the delinquent's handsome face through the visor.

Again, Gokudera chuckled, a small smirk playing on his lips as he kicked his bike into gear, turning his eyes back to the road.

"Duly noted."

It felt strange to act so casually with a person who until just days ago had pretty blatantly disliked her, but at the same time… being able to act like this around someone without having to fear that they would blow up on her was something that she hadn't been able to indulge in for as long as she was able to remember.

A small smile playing on her lips, Tsuna allowed herself to sink into the comfort the back she pressed her front against brought her.

* * *

Thankfully, the schoolyard was pretty much empty when the two of them arrived, allowing Gokudera to park his bike without too much noise going on around them. It was something Tsuna greatly appreciated as she took off her borrowed helmet as well.

The rumors that would no doubt spread at them arriving at school together…

She really couldn't stand such things.

Gokudera snatched her bag from where she'd let it rest as she took the helmet off, hanging both his and hers from his shoulder before she had the chance to comment on it. His olive eyes raked over her face, a small, gentle kind of frown forming on his eyebrows.

"You look tired." he commented, laying a gentle hand on her upper arm.

"I erm..." Tsuna trailed off, scratching at the corner of her eye as the two of them started towards the school building. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

Gokudera held the main door open, allowing Tsuna to step in ahead of him.

"Mind if I ask why?" the door closed behind them as they started up the main staircase.

"I've been meditating a lot lately." Tsuna replied easily, finding the words tumbling from her lips much more naturally than they have done in a long time, "My back's not really used to it." she let out a long, borderline frustrated breath. "And what with my ballet lessons not picking up until after summer, those muscles aren't exactly in their best shape."

Gokudera nodded in understanding.

"You can still practice some of the basics, can't you?" he asked after a moment of comfortable silence. "I'll admit that I'm not that familiar with it, but I figure every skill comes with basics." Tsuna couldn't help but notice his hands moving rather animatedly in the air as the silver-haired delinquent wanna-be explained his thoughts.

Now that she thought about it, he had been doing that a lot when he taught her to fight as well…

Huh.

Tsuna stored her finding away in a compartment of her mind, shaking her head to clear her brain of unnecessary thoughts.

"Not too rigorously," she answered with a breath, tilting her head a little to the left, grimacing slightly at the stiffness of her muscles, she lifted her hand to rub at the aching area. "Just the basics really, as you said." spotting their homeroom door just a few feet in front of them, she held out her hand to the other. She didn't need to ask, Gokudera immediately handed her her bag as Tsuna kept talking. "But with everything that's been going on as of late..." she threaded her arm through the straps, searching for the words. "I'm afraid that I've skipped out on that for much longer than I like to admit." she glanced at him from the corner of her eye, a playful look of shame on her face.

She was surprised with herself, how she was acting, how natural acting this way came to her when with this guy. It was strange...

To his credit, Gokudera chuckled at her actions.

"I see," he nodded in a mocking sort of understanding. "But hey," he shot out a hand, gently grasping her shoulder to force them both to a stop, turning her towards him. "You're alright though," he looked her right in the eyes, searching. "Right?"

Again, Tsuna found herself mulling over just how strange this whole situation was, how new it was, but it didn't feel at all bad. In fact, she felt pleasantly warm all over her body, apart from where Gokudera was touching her.

Those spots felt hot. Like they were burning.

Nodding, she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

"As alright as I can be I guess," she answered slowly, a small smile forming on her lips as she looked up into his olive eyes. "Thank you."

He smiled back at her, raising his hand to gently pat her on the shoulder. He jerked his head in the direction of their homeroom before walking ahead of her, disappearing through the door just as she got her legs moving again.

She blocked out the noise of the girls screams of joy when they noticed the delinquents entrance.

How annoying.

* * *

Yamamoto knew exactly who had stepped in through the door the second the girls of the class broke out in the familiar, deafening squeals. He had to really force himself to keep the look of annoyance off of his face, his eyes remaining bright, his mouth still stretched into a wide smile that was starting to cause an ache in his cheeks.

Although, the class had gotten quite livelier ever since the silver-haired male had arrived.

Finally, the loud sounds quieted down, only for the door to once again slide open.

"Oh, good morning." one of the boys in the class greeted the new arrival from somewhere behind Yamamoto. He sounded quite awkward and unsure if what he was doing was the right thing.

He was met by silence.

Suddenly, the ache in his cheeks eased slightly.

There was only one person in this class that answered a greeting with silence.

Spinning around in his chair, Yamamoto saw the familiar, petite frame of Sawada Tsunako, shoulders hunched, head tilted down like she always did; however, there was something different about her.

There was a lightness to her steps, a spring almost. Her face didn't look as blank as he'd gotten so used to seeing it.

She looked… if he had to put any kind of label on it… happy.

Or, as happy as he'd ever seen her.

Yamamoto felt a strange feeling bubbling in his stomach, a mix of emotions that were difficult to distinguish from one another. The only one he could recognize was joy, most likely from seeing Sawada feeling better than he's seen in a while, but the other emotions were darker, they made him feel kind of… disgusting.

He didn't like it, and he didn't like that he felt it when he looked at her.

"Yo, Sawada." he greeted the girl as she passed by his desk, turning around himself as she did.

Much to his surprise, she answered him with a small smile.

Usually, he would get little more than a short nod.

He couldn't help but wonder just what had caused her good mood.

"You look happy?" he said before the thought registered into his mind.

Sawada kind of… froze as she was pulling out the chair in front of her desk, he recognized movement behind that curtain of tangled hair; he kinda figured that she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"I do?" she asked after a moment of silence, resuming her movements.

"You do," he confirmed, leaning his forearms on top of his desk, leaning forwards towards the girl. "Wake up on the right side of the bed for once?" he joked. Only to momentarily regret it immediately afterward.

He didn't really joke around with Sawada, he didn't know how she would respond.

To his pleasant surprise, her small smile returned, along with a good-natured shake of her head.

"Very funny," she commented, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, a habit that he'd gotten so used to seeing. "The bed was actually quite uncomfortable if you have to know." she rubbed at the back of her neck with what he could only describe as an annoyed sigh. "But I managed to catch a ride on the way here, so I guess the day is starting off well."

A ride?

She'd gotten a ride?

A light went off in the athletes head, he had to force himself to not turn around towards the one person that, in his head, she could have hitched a ride from.

Just what was going on here?

* * *

Lunch break rolled around with nothing major happening, but Tsuna's good mood had remained throughout the classes. That small smile remained on her lips as the hours passed, she couldn't explain how strange it was.

For the first time in a LONG time, she for honest to the stars above in a good mood, a real good mood and not just content for once.

As everyone around her were shoving desks together for friends to share their either home-made or cafeteria fetched lunches, Tsuna herself turned a bit to pull her own lunch from her bag. As she did, she caught the olive-green eyes of Gokudera. Only he wasn't glaring at her.

His gaze was still gentle, soft, smiling at her without the corners of his mouth twitching.

Good thing too, who knows what the ladies in the room would have done had they seen him smiling for the first time.

Tsuna held back a shudder at the thought.

She watched as the guy threw an annoyed look at said ladies of the room, swarming around his desk with homemade lunches that they wanted him to try out for them, all somehow reverting back to that time period where ladies cooked for their husbands without holding jobs of their own. Apparently, they all have heard the old saying "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" or something along those lines.

It was a stupid saying.

A saying that the world was still struggling to overcome.

Well, it also could be the fact that the silver-haired young man was never seen with an actually healthy meal during lunch. Mostly, he was seen with a sandwich or hot-dog from a quick trip into town instead of the cafeteria.

Gokudera's eyes fell back on her again, looking playfully pleading.

Despite herself, everything she was used to doing, she scoffed, rolling her eyes with a light shake of her head, turning back to her own bag.

The voice caught her by surprise.

"Sawada." Yamamoto's voice sounded from behind her, it took everything in her not to jump at it. That was not good, she was usually more observant than that.

"Yes?" she answered, finding it much easier to do so now than ever before.

The athlete was smiling at her, but the smile was painful, that same painful smile that no one but her ever seemed to notice; Tsuna could feel the irritation crawling up her spine at the knowledge of this, it was too obvious to notice, how are everyone so blind! She had to physically force herself to not turn away just so she didn't have to look at that smile.

It hurt so much!

"What's your relationship with Gokudera?" Yamamoto asked, leaning over the desk to get closer to her.

Tsuna snapped out of her thoughts, blinking.

There was a flicker of pain in his eyes when he put his weight on his arms.

"I don't know." Tsuna found herself answering with a long breath, leaning her own weight onto the back of her chair, leaning closer to the athlete so as to be allowed to lower her voice even further; she didn't want anyone of the other girls to hear what she was about to say. "I suppose we could be on our way to becoming friends, but as I've never actually had friends before… that is a difficult estimate." she brushed her hair behind her ear, her voice clear of any secrets. She threw a glance back towards Gokudera, catching his gaze just before he turned away towards the door.

Of course, he didn't get far from the crowd of girls surrounding him.

From what Tsuna could tell…

Oh no, there effeminately were girls from other classes as years as well. And… was that someone from a different school entirely? What was she doing there?

"I see..." Yamamoto breathed, leaning back into his chair, an unreadable expression on his face by the time Tsuna turned her eyes back on him.

"Maybe he just got to know you better." he speculated through a mutter. "Realized that you're not someone one can be mad at." the smile on his face was so fake it was almost physically hurting Tsuna to look at. "Even when you appear to always be mad at something." the athlete turned around just in time to see Gokudera shove a few girls aside, giving him enough room to finally exit the classroom.

Tsuna's eyes gravitated back towards the athlete, her tung parting her lips as she brushed her hair behind her ear.

"I don't know about that." her voice was low, almost a whisper.

When she thought back on the events surrounding Gokudera, she could tell that the change had been gradual. He'd gotten to know her.

She felt strangely warm again.

She turned her attention back towards the athlete, but he was still looking at the door, his eyes narrowed in what Tsuna could only describe as suspicion.

There was something she needed to ask him.

"Yamamoto-san..." she spoke up, making the athlete turn back around towards her.

The look in his eyes told her to continue.

She took a deep breath.

"What's-"

 **RING!**

Tsuna flinched as the sound rang through the air, her eyes closing as she silently cursed it for everything pure in the air that it had cut her off.

Yamamoto looked up at the ceiling, a hint of disappointment washing over his features for a split second before he turned back to Tsuna. That painful smile back on his lips.

"We'll talk another time, alright?"

Tsuna almost winched at the sheer forcefulness of that smile.

It was painful to look at.

Still, she let out a deep sigh.

"Alright."

Reluctantly, she turned back towards the front of the class.

She really needed to talk to Yamamoto about those smiled, and soon.

* * *

 _ **June 17**_

 _ **Wednesday 2215**_

Life had been strange.

Tsuna left as though she'd been using that word excessively the last couple of days, but there really was no other way to describe everything that had happened as of late.

First of, hitching a ride from Gokudera really had become a regular thing, almost to the point of him actually picking her up right outside of her house doors, but thankfully, the guy still had no idea where she lived, and truth be told, she kinda wanted it to remain that way.

She was too confused.

But she was happy.

The strangest thing still would be the fact that she wound up spending quite a lot of time with him, the way back from school being spent walking instead of actually riding on the hoverbike, just walking slowly and conversing like two regular everyday teenagers that weren't weighed down by less-than-stellar pasts.

She loved these moments.

She liked talking to the delinquent, she felt at peace in his company. It was like he was really listening to her, really understanding and thinking about what she was saying, but what he said back had her mind reeling sometimes, rearranging her thought process in the best way possible

Getting to know him was an interesting experience.

A gentleman delinquent with the mind of a rocket scientist and a firm belief in the supernatural.

She would never get over his fanatic interest in aliens, she'd almost laughed out loud when he'd told her about the likelihood of inter-spacial travel and colonies on other planets. Not the facts themselves, but the absolute ecstatic glee on his face as he talked about it.

It was an interesting change.

Now it was Wednesday...

Usually, Tsuna hated Wednesdays because of one particular subject.

P.E.

She's always hated it with a burning passion. Not just because she most definitely wasn't the sporty kind of girl, she was in the Artistic department by the stars. In her mind, it was a subject in which everyone in the class was forced into those regular hours of torture that the faculty so laughably liked to call Physical Education.

With it being so close to summer, again, they were outside.

Thankfully, she didn't have to actually partake.

Coach Enomoto had dragged the class out for soccer, dragging her along even though she still wasn't allowed to participate.

She'd watched as they were divided into teams by the teacher, Gokudera's eyes practically pleading at her as one of the female members of his team latched onto his arm practically like a leach. There was no doubt in either of their minds, from the looks of it, that their team would be seeing a lot of "accidental" falls and tackling from this girl.

Again, Tsuna found herself scoffing.

As Tsuna sat on the sidelines, watching as the teams ran over the field, screaming commands at one another or just plainly screaming in fear as they were tackled for the possession of the ball, she couldn't help but find her eyes gravitating towards one player in particular.

Yamamoto Takeshi.

Every time the boy moved his muscles (desperately trying to keep in the pain), Tsuna would be hit with a horrible sense of familiarity. She bit her lip, her fingers tightening around her upper-arms as the memories came back to her.

She had a strong suspicion as to what Yamamoto's problem was, and the thought that he was going through something like that made her feel absolutely terrible.

She needed to talk to him, and she needed to do it fast.

* * *

P.E was rolling towards its end, the last game was being played for the day, and finally, FINALLY, the athlete was free.

It was as good a time as any, even if Gokudera currently looked as though he was minutes away from literally slaying the opposing team out on the field, but she figured that she would notice if the delinquent blew up at the next steal.

She turned her eyes towards the star athlete, she watched as he bent his body in a set of stretches that Tsuna recognized had become quite routine for her long-time classmate, but every move of his right arm was strained, his handsome face twitching as he held it in place over his chest, most likely looking for some kind of relief from the pain he was obviously in.

Well… obvious to her.

Clenching her fists, Tsuna's lip caught between her teeth as she walked over to where the athlete had just dropped down onto the grass, breathing heavily as he finally allowed himself to relax, wiping at the sweat forming on his forehead, staring out over the game playing in front of them.

"Yamamoto-san..." she spoke up, forcing the athlete to look up at her.

For a moment, that was all he did. Then, finally, a slightly less painful than usual smile spread across his face.

With how many times she had seen that smile directed towards her, Tsuna could have just as well believed that that specific smile was reserved for her alone. And she would be true, the truly painful smile was directed towards everyone else, a smile that he plastered on whenever someone would call out to him in either the classroom or on the school grounds.

How anyone else didn't notice the forcefulness of those smiles was beyond her.

To her, seeing that pained smile was like seeing a set of keys dangling in front of the eyes of a cat.

"Ah, Sawada..." Yamamoto greeted.

Even though his smile was painful, his eyes were still kind.

Cautiously, she sat down next to the athlete.

She'd started to feel the tingles in her fingertips as she'd been talking over there, but now she felt them slowly ebbing away into nothingness, replaced by that strange sort of calm she remembered she'd felt that afternoon she'd treated Gokudera's wound in the park.

Brushing her hair behind her ear, she looked at him, eyes filled with worry.

Not that he could see them.

"What's wrong?"

Her question seemed to shock the athlete. The smile wiped itself off of his features, leaving a bewildered look in its wake.

"What do you mean?" he asked, leaning a bit away from her. "Nothing's wrong," he added a light laugh, though it sounded just as painful as his smile appeared.

Tsuna shook her head at his reaction.

"Yamamoto-san..." she breathed. "You're forcing your smiles." she brought up her knees, letting her head rest on the folds of her arms as she looked out over the field to allow the other time to show whatever facial expression he wished without her looking at him.

At it turns out, she's looked up just in time to catch Gokudera looking her way, frowning slightly at where she was sitting.

Shaking her head, she made a 'shoo' motion with her hand, indicating for him to return to the game.

He didn't seem to like the idea, but her complied none the less.

"Oh..." Yamamoto breathed, making Tsuna turn back towards him." You noticed that huh?" he scratched at the back of his neck in what appeared to be resigned embarrassment.

Despite herself, Tsuna groaned in annoyance.

How could he ask her something like that when he knows her better than that?

"How could I not?" she chose to ask instead, turning her torso fully towards him. "It's been painful to watch you smile for quite some time now."

Yamamoto laughed that painful smile once again.

Tsuna almost winched at the sound of it.

"Right..." Yamamoto muttered, threading his fingers through his bangs.

After a moment of silence, the athlete let out a long, dejected (or maybe it was resigned?) sigh.

"Sawada, can I ask you for advice?"

The question had come so suddenly, and it was so unexpected that Tsuna froze. She just sat there, staring at the athlete with eyes thrown open in shock.

She had to shake her head in order to snap out of it.

"T-that depends on what you want advice on." she finally managed to say, brushing her hair behind her ear as she once again looked out over the field, eyes immediately locking onto the now rather angry silverette.

At first, it seemed like Yamamoto had changed his mind.

Then, he licked his lips, turning his head fully towards the girl next to him.

"My average in baseball has been dropping as of late..." he admitted under his breath.

A long breath of realization slipped from Tsuna's lips.

No wonder he didn't want to tell anyone. His reputation was almost entirely built upon his talent for the sport, his reputation was what had gotten him most of his friends in the first place. If he were to lose the one thing he was good at, the only thing he would have left would be his looks. And if she knew Yamamoto right, there was no way he would ever consciously play on those, he was too kind for that.

"I've tried to train in order to get better, but…" he rubbed at the back of his neck. "It only seems to get worse." he let out a groan in frustration, burring his face into the folds of his arms.

That was exactly what Tsuna had feared.

Swallowing, Tsuna gathered up the courage to ask something that would most likely lead to the athlete reaching the wrong conclusion about her intentions.

"Can I see your arm?" she asked timidly.

As she had expected, Yamamoto looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.

Then, despite the questioning frown was still etched into his eyebrows, he lifted his arm from the side and presented it to her, rolling up the sleeve of his T-shirt even further to reveal the whole thing. He didn't take his eyes off of her for one second.

Tsuna had to gulp at the sight of the teenager's muscles, but as it wasn't forearms alone, it was a lot easier to ignore her rebellious teenage hormones, allowing her to focus on the matter at hand.

Hesitantly, she raised her hand towards the offered limb.

"May I?" she asked, looking him straight in the eye.

Yamamoto nodded slowly in acceptance, however, he still didn't take his eyes off of her, the look of questioning was still there.

Slowly, Tsuna put her small hands on his upper arm.

The pale color of her skin was a stark contrast to his sun-kissed tan.

Carefully, Tsuna ran her hands over his muscles, poking and squeezing certain areas all the while briefly glancing up at his face for his reactions. And sure enough, with every calculated poke and pinch she delivered to the muscles, the athlete winched, even though she'd delivered little to no pressure to the area.

Slowly, the longer she kept up her administrations, a frown made its way onto her doll-like features, her worry washing away the unstable state of her nerves.

This wasn't good.

The feel and sensitivity of his muscles were all too familiar to her.

Apparently, her distress was obvious enough for even someone as oblivious as Yamamoto to notice it.

"What is it?" he asked, his own voice sounding worried at her reaction.

Her attention jumped to his face.

At the unease visible in his expression, Tsuna gathered her courage and forced the question out.

"Exactly… how much time do you spend training?" she asked slowly, keeping her eyes locked with his, worry playing in her eyes.

Yamamoto let out a heavy breath.

"I don't know..." he answered slowly, taking his arm back from her. "A few times a day I suppose." he rolled his shoulder experimentally, flinching again. "About the same as the team does."

Tsuna's eyebrow shot up at those words.

Yamamoto training the same as everyone else on his team?

"Really?" she asked, her disbelief blatant on her voice. "And exactly, how much time do your teammates spend training?"

"I..." the athlete practically froze where he was sitting, staring at her, eyes wide as her words sunk in, along with the way she said it. She doubted it, the most observant person he knew doubted it, what did that say about the situation. "I have to go."

Tsuna recoiled at the sudden change of subject.

Suddenly, the athlete was on his feet, stalking away from her without so much as another look.

"Wait," Tsuna spoke up, one of her hands raised towards the rapidly retreating back, trying to get the attention of the young man who had just blatantly brushed her off. "Yamamoto-san!" she screamed after him, but he was already gone.

Now she just sat there, her hand falling to the ground as she stared after him, knowing that he had practically just signed himself up for potential disaster.

She felt absolutely horrible.

Groaning, she allowed her head to fall into the palms of her hands.

* * *

 **AN: To think that the contents of this chapter were the 8th in the original…**

 **Again, I feel the need to ask everyone that reads this to PLEASE tell me what you think, any kind of thought really, if you can't think of anything you don't have to, but if you have a thought that is not about my spelling, please tell me, I'll deal with the spelling at a later date, even though I feel like it's improved what with me using two different spell-check systems for this thing.**

 **Yes, I need them.**

 **It got a bit long didn't it, but that's all well and good, I'm sure some of you appreciate that.**

 **Again, please review, you keep this alive, and I'll be back as soon as I can.**

 **This has been:**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	20. Scene 20: Sweetest Revenge

**AN: What the flying fuck?**

 **What the hell happened here?**

 **We've reached over 200 reviews like… I cannot believe it.**

 **Thank you, thank you SO much for all the heartwarming reviews. I've actually read a few of them to my parents, I loved them so much.**

 **See?**

 **THIS is what happens when her Ladyship is fucking motivated!**

 **I finished it within a day, like… what the fuck?**

 **And I'm swearing too much.**

 **Just… just read it, please.**

* * *

 **Scene 20:**

 **Sweetest Revenge**

Thankfully, P.E was the last class of the day.

Leaning against the wall between the three changing rooms, Tsuna frequently found herself checking the time as she waited for Gokudera to finish changing. Truthfully she'd wanted to catch Yamamoto again as he was leaving, but much to her annoyance, he'd already finished changing and left, saying something along the lines of:

"My old man's waiting for me at the shop."

She fiddled with her fingertips, feeling the faint traces of the tingles starting up again as she kept thinking about the look that had passed over the athlete's face.

It worried her.

She'd been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the door to the boy's changing rooms open a few feet to her right.

Seriously, she'd been WAY too out of it the last couple of days.

"Juudaime."

Tsuna jumped, jerking in the direction towards the silverette, said hair still damp from the shower and, from the looks of it, the clothes were thrown on haphazardly. She didn't see nearly as many accessories on his person as he had been wearing when he'd stepped into the changing room before class but, annoyingly, he still gave off the air of a perfect gentleman.

The smile he was wearing only added to this image.

Tsuna immediately calmed down.

"Did you wait long?" Gokudera asked, stepping up towards her as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Stars." Tsuna scoffed leaning her head against the wall with a roll of her eyes. "It sounds like we're meeting up for a date."

For a moment, Tsuna could have sworn that the delinquent would burst into panicked apologies, there was a flash of worry in his eyes before it calmed down. He glanced away from her, looking like he was contemplating something, exaggeratedly so, before he made a show to shrug his shoulders nonchalantly, leaning in closer towards her with something of a playful smirk on his face, eyes narrowed.

"I wouldn't say no to that."

Tsuna was momentarily thrown off, before she crossed her arms over her chest, stepping close to him as well, to the point where their faces were a couple of inches away from each other, mirroring his expression.

"But, would you say yes?" she asked, blinking in faux flirtation behind her curtain of hair.

To her surprise, Gokudera scoffed.

"Heh, no," he answered, leaning against the plaster-covered concrete wall, his hands finding their way into his pockets as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. His answer, allowing with the humor of which he said it, would have sent Tsuna spiraling down, had he not kept going with the most sincere air to his words. "You deserve someone better than me."

Tsuna just blinked for several seconds.

Here was a guy from a noble upbringing, with a great logical mind and stunning good looks that attracted potential romantic interests from all around him.

And he thought SHE was too good for HIM?

"I'm both flattered, and insulted." she found herself saying.

Gokudera snorted, shaking his head before he forced her to turn, hands on her shoulders.

"Let's go, Juudaime." he said, making her roll her eyes.

If she had to be honest, the nickname was starting to grow on her.

* * *

The two teenagers were walking over the school grounds when the delinquent suddenly stopped, furiously patting at his shoulders.

Curious, Tsuna stopped as well, turning around towards him.

Suddenly, Gokudera let out a long growl.

"FUCK!" he exclaimed in anger.

"What is it?" Tsuna asked, tucking one foot behind her ankle, tilting her head to the side.

"I forgot my gem in the changing room." the delinquent growled, rifling through his bag just to make sure he hadn't stuffed it in there in his haste to meet up with her. His shoulders slumped when he confirmed his suspicion. "I have to go back and get it." he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, a look of absolute annoyance on his face.

Tsuna smiled softly at him.

"Don't worry about it," she said, backing away from him towards the gate. "I can entertain myself."

Gokudera looked almost scandalized at this.

"I'll be quick," he said, pointing towards her in mock warning as he himself started backing up back towards the school.

Tsuna rolled her eyes, turning around and kept walking.

"I don't doubt you."

* * *

She'd been standing there for about three minutes, leaning against one of the gateposts of the school grounds, watching the students passing by as she played a game with herself, counting the number of students that had visible piercings and how many piercings she could see.

She'd reached 518 when a familiar voice screamed through the air.

A voice that made her blood run cold.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Mochida yelled out, turning the attention of everyone still on the grounds towards him, Tsuna included. "YOU CAN'T BREAK UP WITH ME!"

There stood Mochida and Kyoko, facing one another and both wearing an equally angered expression on their faces.

Even though Yoko was a good head and a half shorter than Mochida, she still stood her ground, her hands firmly planted on her well-developed hips as she stared up at him. It looked quite odd what with her long hair done up in butterfly hair-clips and a modest amount of pastel-colored make-up accentuating her gentle features.

"I can and I will," Kyoko answered his screaming with a soft, yet steady, confident voice as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't want to be dating someone who beat up one of my classmates with his friends." despite her soft tone, her voice boomed over the silence of the school grounds, her eyes narrowed in anger. No one had ever seen the school angel so angry before. In fact, no one had seen her angry before.

She turned around to walk away, obviously believing their conversation was over.

Mochida didn't agree.

"YOU BITCH!" He screamed, hand shooting out to grab Kyoko roughly by the elbow, yanking her back towards him, making her slam into his chest.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, trying to yank herself out of his grip, her small fists pounding furiously at his chest, but he held on. If anything, his grip only got tighter the more she struggled against his hold.

"YOU'RE NOT BREAKING UP WITH ME!" Mochida kept screaming, not even caring how many people were witnessing this. He shook her furiously, almost as if that would force her to see the reason behind his actions. And she did, just not the reason he did. "I AM NOT SOMEONE YOU BREAK UP WITH!"

"I said, let go!" Kyoko's eyes narrowed, her foot slamming down onto the Kendo captain's foot. "Don't touch me!" The pain forced him to let go of her, and when he did, the shapely angel of the school delivered what Tsuna recognized as a well-placed boxing punch straight to his face, a punch that she could immediately tell was expertly delivered and dealt with as much strength as her delicate looking body could muster.

The sound of her fist colliding with his jaw echoed across the yard, everyone watching as the kendo captain staggered away from the red-head.

Tsuna's eyebrow rose, despite the chill in her blood, the tingling in her fingertips.

She had not expected that.

For a moment, Mochida just stood there, stunned at what the girl had just done.

Hand grasping at where the punch had hit, he turned back towards Kyoko. This also revealed that one of her rings had scraped up his skin, small droplets of blood trickling down his jaw.

If it was possible, Mochida became even angrier than he'd been before.

"YOU WORTHLESS BITCH!" he screamed louder than he'd been screaming before. It was a wonder that his voice hadn't broken already.

Before anyone had the chance to do anything, Mochida had stormed over to Kyoko, grabbing her by the shoulders and hurled her to the ground with what appeared to be as much strength as he could summon in his blind rage.

Tsuna watched as the red-head skidded over the asphalt, letting out a loud shriek of pain as parts of her skin was ripped open.

It was at that moment that it happened.

Seeing one of the few classmates that had been relatively kind to her from the very beginning treated in such a horrible way by a guy she absolutely could not stand, the school no-good's eyes narrowed at the scene. Her fists clenched at her sides, but not to ward off the tingling sensation that now roared to life in her hands, but because of the unfamiliar emotion that was violently boiling up in the pit of her stomach.

Anger.

She was angry.

Absolutely furious.

Just like when she was frightened, the tingling spread through her bloodstream.

However, this time, it was different.

Instead of feeling like there were white-hot rapids rushing side-by-side with her blood through her veils as she had when she had been frightened for her life. Now, it felt like a white-hot river slowly flowed through her, washing over her senses.

The sensation wasn't searching for an outlet of any kind, it was perfectly content with just pumping through her body at a calm, controlled rate, even though her heart was nowhere near calm at that moment.

Her body felt lighter; like weights had dropped off from her shoulders until she weighed little more than half of what had been her previous body-weight.

However, as she was standing there, Tsuna didn't even register this change.

Her attention was solely locked onto the young man that had haunted her dreams for weeks, but instead of fear, she felt nothing but pure, overwhelming anger.

For the first time since Tsuna's father had walked out of their house for work six years ago and never came back, Tsuna was legitimately furious.

She didn't look it though.

Instead of furrowing her eyebrows until they fused with the top of her eyelids and bare her teeth like the male a few paces in front of her, Tsuna… Tsuna simply lowered her eyelids, her gaze sharp as she allowed her body to succumb to a sense of unnatural calm.

She stared at Mochida as if sizing up her grey.

Head held high, and with poise acquired from years of intensive ballet training, Tsuna strode over towards the fuming kendo captain with steps more confident than anyone had ever seen her take, they didn't fit in with the character the students had come to recognize her as. The onlooker's eyes trailed after her, parting for her as she approached the scene.

Mochida was still staring down at the now cowering Kyoko, looking as though he was just about to pounce on her.

Only, before he could, there was a tap on his shoulder.

Fuming, the kendo captain spun around, prepared to deal with whoever dared to try and stop him from giving his bitch a piece of his mind. Only he never got the chance to do that. By the time he'd turned around, his nose connected to a precise right hook.

A sickening crack rang through the air as Mochida's nose broke.

If it had been silent before, now, it was deathly quiet.

Holding his now furiously bleeding nose, Mochida turned to look at whoever had attacked him in such a manner, and his eyes widened when he saw Tsuna.

"What…?" he whispered, taking in the confident posture, the calm demeanor, the narrowed take-no-shit expression on her face. She raised an almost mocking eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest as she physically looks down his hunched down form.

This was not the terrified freak that he knew.

And he really, really, did not like it.

"You..." he growled, straightening himself out. He took pleasure in the step the freak took back. "YOU FREAK!" he bellowed, rushing at her like an enraged bull.

He had thought she'd go down just as easily as Kyoko had done after her brief moment of… he'll call it stupidity. But instead, he observed as she took about two pirouettes before jumping into the air, using the momentum of the spins and an extended leg to kick the side of his head as he rushed towards her, sending him stumbling away for the third time that day.

Tsuna landed with absolute grace, making one more spin before she stopped, her hair momentarily raised in the air before settling back around her head, but it had been long enough for the crowd to see a glimpse of her sharp, narrowed eyes.

She tiled her head, moving in a calculated circle around the now panting Mochida.

"A freak am I?" her voice was sickly calm, sending chills running down the spine of everyone watching, her bag dropping to the ground close to where Kyoko was sitting, watching the scene with wide eyes. "Then what would you call someone who takes his two friends out to beat up a girl because she was "stepping over her boundaries"." she made air quotes around the words, even if she wasn't entirely sure of exactly what he had said, but it was something along those lines.

Roaring with rage, Mochida charged at the girl, but she swiftly stepped to the side, allowing him to run straight past her, continuing for a few steps before stopping.

Tsuna kept talking.

"What would you call someone who decides to push said girl up against the wall a few days later and threaten her with said event?" her eyes narrowed even further as she spun around, look the picture of a calm individual.

This… this was not the frightened rabbit they had come to associate with Sawada Tsunako.

This… this was a lioness on a hunt.

Again, Mochida rushed towards Tsuna, back bent, aiming towards her waist.

Again, she surprised everyone by jumping into the air, slamming her hands down on the rushing kendo captain's shoulders and sort of, somersaulted over him, landing at a smooth, graceful crouch that somehow managed to not reveal what was beneath her skirts.

She straightened herself again, all the while Mochida seemed to be quite disoriented.

Most likely, it was because of how athletic he was and how used to fighting he was that had allowed him to stay on his feet for this long with little more than heavy breath, aside from the broken nose and the cut on his cheek.

"What do you call someone that attacks his girlfriend when she decides to break up with him after finding out about the first thing?" she clicked her tongue, crossing her arms as she exaggerated a thinking pose. "I know." she finally said, snapping her fingers. "A possessive psycho."

It seemed like Tsuna wasn't conscious of the people around her, conscious of the fact that she'd just pretty much revealed what Mochida and his friends had done to her. She was too sucked up in her anger, too focused on the young man staggering in front of her.

Just one more.

She needed him to rush her one more time.

And sure enough, he did, arms raised in front of him like Frankenstein's monster, the original black-and-white movie version of him of course.

Tsuna waited, head held high.

Then, just as he was within reach, her arms shot out, grabbing hold of his wrists as she spun around, crouching down on the ground as she yanked on the arms of the enraged kendo captain.

And he flew, the momentum working against him as he flew over her head, her grip on his arms causing him to volt over her and landing painfully on the ground, probably sustaining a concussion as his head collided with the asphalt under him.

He was still conscious thought, blinking up at the sky above.

Letting out a long breath, Tsuna stood up from the ground, winching a little at the light ache in her stomach, right where her still healing wound was.

It didn't feel like something had snapped, but it most definitely was irritated.

That was as much exercise she'd gotten in a long while.

Tsuna backed away from the scene as she felt the flow of fire diminishing, taking the calm she'd been under with it.

Now, she was painfully aware of everything around her.

All eyes were on her, shocked.

They couldn't believe what they had just seen. If it wasn't for the fact that Mochida was in clear, horrible pain, writhing on the ground in what could only be described as a delirious state, they would have probably believed that they had seen some form of illusion, even though they had all seen the same thing.

They would have come up with something.

Deciding to ignore the whispering of the students, Tsuna spun around, jogging over to Kyoko who was still sitting on the ground, wincing at the pain from the scratches splattered over her creamy skin.

"You alright?" Tsuna asked gently, already fishing her first-aid kid out of her bag, practiced fingers working over its contents before she allowed herself to sit closer to the other girl, carefully beginning to treat the scrapes.

"Yes," Kyoko answered, smiling up at Tsuna as she allowed the medicines to be applied, only twitching every once in a while. "Thank you, Sawada-chan."

Tsuna froze, it was only for a second but it still happened.

That was the first time she'd ever been thanked by someone close to her own age…

It felt strange...

By the time Tsuna had applied the last strip of bio-tape over Kyoko's cheek, Kurokawa Hana had finally managed to shove her way through the crowd and rushed over two them.

With her help, the two managed to get Kyoko back to her feet without causing the poor girl any more pain than she was already in.

"I'll take her from here," Hana said, keeping her hands on her best friends shoulders, keeping her steady as she carefully made sure to not touch a sensitive area, even if those were few and far between after that fall.

Before they felt to bring the injured girl home, however, Hana gave Tsuna a smile of her own.

"You sure showed that dick not to mess with us girls, didn't you Sawada?" her smile turned into a smirk mid-sentence, glancing towards said 'Dick' still writhing on the ground.

Tsuna brushed her hair behind her ear.

"I guess I did..."

When she looked at Mochida now, all semblance of the fear that she previously held for him was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place.

For the first time in a long while, she felt proud of something that wasn't her bedroom or a painting she had just finished.

She couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her lips.

The crowd was still standing there, whispering about what had just happened, eyes pinned on either Tsuna or Mochida, but there was one figure moving, one figure quite violently shoving himself through the masses.

Hibari Kyoya stalked straight up to the still writhing student, almost swaggered even, his eyes holding an unexplainable emotion.

Ignoring the teenager's pain, Hibari reached forwards and grabbed hold of the back of Mochida's shirt, and with one powerful tug, had the bleary-eyed teenager on his feet. He hid a smirk at the mixed shriek of fear and pain the young man let out at the motion.

Hibari turned towards Tsuna.

"Herbivore," he spoke up, making the girl turn towards him.

Tsuna tensed slightly as she met his eyes.

"I'll take him from here."

Tsuna just nodded in acceptance once, still standing as if in attention.

As Hibari started to drag a struggling Mochida away by the front of his shirt, Tsuna couldn't help but notice the expression on the prefects faces.

For whatever reason, she couldn't decipher the emotions behind that look, but it still felt terribly familiar to her.

Standing on her own, Tsuna felt herself completely open to the stares of the other students. It was like they were all waiting for the perfect moment to attack her with their questions, and she really, really wasn't ready for anything like that at the moment.

Thankfully, she didn't have to deal with that.

"Juudaime."

Gokudera's voice made her spin around, just in time to catch that familiar black orb as it hurled towards her through the air. It was strange to think that she'd actually gotten used to this very thing happening the past two days.

"Get on." the silverette said, adjusting his grip on the handles of his bike.

She didn't even hesitate, jogging towards the vehicle as she pulled the helmet over her head, swinging a let over the seat with obvious familiarity, even to the students surrounding them. The next thing they knew, the delinquent had kicked the engine into action and the odd pair zoomed off, leaving bewildered expressions in their wake.

* * *

In the shadows of the school building, a dark male stepped out, his mouth twisting into a smirk at what he had just witnessed.

"She's finally starting to mature," he muttered, tilting his fedora so the shadow fell over his dark eyes. "It's about time." stuffing his hands into his pockets, he chuckled to himself before he disappeared around the bend.

* * *

"I'm back!" Yamamoto called out as he stepped through the entrance of the sushi shop.

Immediately, he was greeted by the regulars, loudly shouting their return greetings as the teenager closed the door behind him. But of course, there was no sight of his father.

He'd gotten used to that the last couple of years.

He kept his disappointment at bay when he heard his father shouting from the other side of the door leading into the kitchen instead of behind the freezer counter like he used to be.

"Welcome home Takeshi!" the voice called out, intermingling with the sound of knives sharpening and chopping, a sound Yamamoto knew even better than the sound of a bat hitting the ball on the field.

He plastered a smile onto his face.

"You need some help Old man!?" he called out towards the open door, crossing his fingers from where he leaned his weight on the counter.

He shouldn't have bothered.

"Nah, we're alright back here!" came the regular response forcing the younger Yamamoto to force the disappointment on his face, not wanting to worry the costumes. "You go on ahead!"

"Alright!" The younger Yamamoto answered, his hands fisting before he stalked over to a more obscure door, pushing it open and continuing up the stairs towards their living quarters and slipping into his bedroom.

It isn't until the door closed behind him that he allowed the smile to fall.

Every day.

Every day he would ask his dad if he needed help, and every day he would be turned away. Every day, he would try and strike up a conversation with the man but to always be told that he didn't have time.

He couldn't remember the last time his father had actually properly looked at him.

Sighing, he threw his bag onto the bed, rubbing at his neck before his eyes fell on the framed photograph sitting on his desk

It was a woman, a pretty woman in what looked to be her early thirties, with straight black hair and a kind smile that reached her crescent eyes, you couldn't see the color of them, they were completely shut because of the smile.

Yamamoto's eyes remained on the picture, the corner of his mouth twitching before he reached out towards the frame. He hesitated for a split second before he touched it, but he went through with it, wrapping his calloused fingers around the wood and bringing it closer to him.

For a long moment, he just stared at it, letting his fingers run over the glass, tracing the woman's beautiful features.

"I miss you," he whispered into the silence.

* * *

 **AN: Am I evil again?**

 **I feel like I'm evil again.**

 **Please keep leaving me your thoughts, the last scene was actually inspired by one of the reviews for the last chapter and I really want to keep this going, I wanna keep writing on this, I love writing these characters even if I'm probably making them suffer just a tiny bit too much, but fuck it, I'm evil!**

 **I've had a good day, cuddling my step nephew and niece, writing, being left alone generally because I'm obviously coming down with a cold (it's that time a year again), and I wanted to spread that energy!**

 **Love you lots!**

 **This has been:**

 **A message from her Ladyship.**


	21. Scene 21: Attention, Attention

**AN: Alright!**

 **So I finally got round to writing on another chapter!**

 **Thank you all very much for all the kind words I have received, I appreciate everything you've taken the time to write and they really do serve to make me passionate for this story all over again. I truly did not think that I would finish this chapter so quickly. I kid you not, I started writing on it again just a few hours ago... like... six to eight hours ago, it's crazy.**

 **I hope you like it, I know it's kinda short but if I had included the next scene it would have dragged on for too long.**

 **Please,**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Scene 21:**

 **Attention, Attention**

Gokudera drove for a good five minutes before he finally pulled the bike to a stop, turning off the hovering mechanism to gently lower the vehicle to the ground.

He leaned back, removing his weight from the handles as he felt Juudaime move away from behind him, the comforting, gentle presence of her arms wrapped around his waist slipping. He mentally slapped himself, those were not roads his thoughts should go down. Not about Juudaime, never about her.

He watched as the teenager pirouetted to turn towards him, her small, delicate-looking hands that he knew from personal experience were anything but delicate, removing the helmet from her head.

Once again, Gokudera was granted the briefest, blessed glimpse of the entirety of Juudaime's face before her hair once again fell over her eyes, obscuring the beautiful features.

NO! Bad Gokudera!

Those thoughts lead to feelings and she does not deserve yours!

"Did that really happen?" Juudaime asked, eyes locked onto the helmet in her hands. Or, what he supposed were her eyes, he couldn't actually see them. She raised her head and he could practically feel those chocolate brown orbs pinned on him. "Did I seriously just do that this?"

Gokudera allowed himself a chuckle.

"It happened," he answered, leaning an elbow on the front of the bike, letting him rest his chin on his knuckled. "And it was absolutely amazing." he smiled at her. "You did great."

Color flushed what little Gokudera could see of Juudaime's cheeks, her lower lip catching between her teeth as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her fingers dancing on the helmet.

Adorable…

NO!

"How are you feeling?" he asked, noticing the downward twitch of Juudaime's mouth, taking the helmet from her hands.

Her tongue shot out for a split second, parting her lips.

"Conflicted..." she answered slowly, her hands raising from where they had fallen, moving in small circular motions in the air between them as she gathered her thoughts. "Like..." if he could see her eyes, he was pretty sure she would be frowning right about now. "I feel like this… HUGE weight has dropped from my stomach, but..." her hands froze, along with her voice.

"But?" Gokudera repeated softly.

Again, she licked her lips, her hands falling back to her side.

"You don't think I went too far did you?" barely had she finished the question, a small smirk already forming on Gokudera's mouth, that she backtracked. "No." she cut him off before he could say anything. "Don't, don't bother answering that." she waved a finger between them, sighing as she put her hands on her hips, looking at the ground in what Gokudera could only describe as an exasperated stance.

"It was a rather stupid question," Gokudera commented.

"It really was."

Both of them knew, without a doubt, that there was no way Gokudera would have stopped where she had.

Sighing, Juudaime ran a hand over her face.

She looked tired now that the adrenaline had run its course, the relief of the weight of that trash-bag Mochida being lifted off of her mind was finally dawning on her, probably allowing her to relax for the first time in weeks.

"You want me to follow you home?" Gokudera asked, stuffing the helmet under his arm.

He was worried she'd collapse on the way there.

"Wording," Juudaime muttered through her hand.

"Was accurate." Gokudera shot right back at her.

"Shut up." was her very original reply, her hand falling to her side with a long sigh. She raised her head to their surroundings. "Don't you live down that road?" she asked, lazily motioning with her hand down the road he usually took to his apartment complex.

"Yes, what of it?" he asked right back.

"Wouldn't walking me home take too long?"

Gokudera raised an eyebrow at her, leaning forward onto the handles.

"Juudaime," he said, trying to keep the mirth out of his voice. "I'm on a hoverbike."

For a moment, the two of them fell into silence, a silence in which both of them were fighting to keep from laughing.

"Fair point..." Juudaime finally replied, releasing a quick but deep breath.

Suddenly, a thought his Gokudera. A thought that really brought his mood down.

"Unless..." Juudaime immediately caught onto his change of mood, taking a step closer to him. she's too kind, she really is. "You don't want me to see where you live."

Letting out a sigh, she actually punched his shoulder.

"It's not that." she gave him a quick smile. "I just don't want you to do anything that will end up being bothersome for you."

Gokudera shook his head at her words, locking eyes with her through her bangs.

"Anything where you are concerned Juudaime, could never be a bother for me," she said, pouring as much sincerity into each syllable slipping through his mouth.

Juudaime's eyebrows drew together in what Gokudera could only describe as something of a mixture between disgust and disbelief.

"Okay, don't talk like that," she said, raising her hand up between them.

Gokudera raised an eyebrow.

"Talk like what?"

"Like the love interest in a cheesy romance movie." and with that said, Juudaime spun around on her heel and started off down the road he had come to recognize as the path leading up to her house. There was a part of him that felt almost delirious as the situation finally dawned on him.

He was finally going to get to see where Juudaime lives!

* * *

 _ **June 18**_

 _ **Thursday 2215**_

They were looking at her.

She could feel the tingling at the back of her neck from their stares.

Ever since she had walked through the doors to the school building, closely following after Gokudera who had held the door open to her, it was like the other students were incapable of taking their eyes off of her.

It didn't help either that she had a sneaking suspicion that most of the males had finally noticed her more form-fitting attire, thank you Reborn (please note the sarcasm).

There was a certain sense of comfort having Gokudera at her side though. No one dared to really approach her when he was near her.

Well…

No one except for one.

"Sawada!"

Tsuna almost jumped at the sudden outcry of her name. Spinning around on her heel to face the young man that made it almost his mission to weave himself into her life.

"Fujitaka?" she greeted, not disguising her bewilderment. She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Is something the matter?"

The young man stopped in front of her, looking the picture of nervosity as he wrung his hands, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Occasionally, his eyes shifted over her shoulder, or more specifically, to the person hovering there.

"I eh..." Fujitaka looked away from them for a second, taking a deep breath before opening his mouth again. "I wanted to know if..." he needed another breath before he could finish his sentence. "I was wondering if I could speak to you about something..." another glance at Gokudera who Tsuna could just feel glaring at their classmate. "Alone?"

She blinked for a few seconds before nodding, more to herself than anyone.

"Okay..." she answered softly.

Turning to Gokudera, she gave him a quick smile.

"I'll just be a minute, you go on ahead."

Obviously, that was not a thought that Gokudera likes, his eyes shifting between her and Fujitaka before he finally let out a long sigh of irritation.

"Alright," he grumbled, placing a gentle hand between her shoulder-blades, sending one last quick glare at Fujitaka before he continued over to the classroom door.

Truthfully, Tsuna hadn't expected him to agree to it that quickly. She had to let out a quick, relieved breath before turning back towards her fellow dancer.

"What did you wanna talk about?"

Immediately, Fujitaka's face flushed with color, refusing to look at her in obvious embarrassment.

"You..." he cleared his throat nervously. "You were really cool yesterday." he finally said, looking quite pleased with himself that he'd managed to get the words out. Riding that pride, he kept on going. "I didn't know you could turn dancing into fighting moves like that."

His words brought a quick, fond smile to Tsuna's face.

"Neither did I." she admitted. "Until Gokudera-kun showed me how."

A darker look passed over Fujitaka's face.

"About that..." he gulped, shifting again, not looking at her. "What exactly… is your relationship with Gokudera-san?" he cautiously glanced down at her.

"Good question." Tsuna immediately answered, putting her hands on her hips as she looked up at the ceiling. "We've never exactly put a label on our relationship yet," she could tell that Fujitaka was starting to become anxious for her answer. "But..." she breathed after a moment of silence. "I'd say we were friends."

Fujitaka froze mid-shift.

"Friends?" he repeated after a moment of silence.

"Yes." Tsuna agreed with a slow nod.

"You're..." a small smile was beginning to form on Fujitaka's face. "Just friends?"

The way he said it, the relief in his word… she knew, logically, that he hadn't meant it the way she was taking it, she knew more than she wanted at the moment, but there was just… a dark feeling that seeped into her at his choice of words.

Particularly, one word.

"This is not a JUST for me Fujitaka," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing as she looked up at her fellow ballet dancer. "It's a big deal."

That feeling was growing, and she didn't like it.

She needed to get away before she did or said something she would undoubtedly regret later.

* * *

"I..." Fujitaka tried to say, only to trail off as Tsuna began walking off. "Wait!" he called out, but she didn't. She was hurrying away from him with strong steps similar to the ones he had seen her take when she'd been walking up to Mochida the days before.

He'd angered her.

There was no doubt about it.

"Arg!" he screamed once she was out of sight, furious with himself.

Can he do anything right?

* * *

Tsuna tried to push the feel of the stares out of her mind, opening the lid to her lunch-box as Gokudera was already shoving desks around to make enough room to sit in front of her, Tsuna tried to focus on Lunch, trying to forget the feel of the eyes at the back of her head.

Well, they were staring at Gokudera too. Him and what he was doing.

"You gonna grab a hotdog again?" Tsuna asked once Gokudera sat down in front of her.

"And leave you alone in this building for twenty minutes?" Gokudera raised an eyebrow at her, leaning his elbows on top of the desk. "I don't think so." he leaned back into his chair. "I ordered a school lunch today."

Now it was Tsuna's turn to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Did it have anything to do with what they're serving today?" she found herself asking. It had gotten easier and easier to actually talk to Gokudera since they had started to actually hang out instead of him treating her coldly in the corridors.

"It might have," Gokudera answered with a playful tone.

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna lowered her chopsticks into her lunchbox, pulling out an octopus-shaped wiener (she'd tried to make her mother stop cutting them like that, but the woman refused to comply with her wishes).

She had gotten a few bites into her lunch when a shadow fell over her.

Cautiously, Tsuna allowed herself to keep up at the cause of the shadow through her bangs.

There stood the lightly curved figure of Sasagawa Kyoko, her eyes glittering with a gentle determination that Tsuna could practically feel radiating off of the girl's mere presence.

She had been harnessing her own determination for so long that seeing it in another person had become easier than noticing a tree ten feet in front of her.

Looking over the other girl, Tsuna noticed the faint lines from where the bio-fabric covered scrapes and fresh bandages lining her arms and legs. The scrapes were still bothering her, but thankfully, she didn't look to be in as much pain as she had been in the day before.

Kyoko smiled down at her when she noticed her eyes were on her before turning to the silver-haired delinquent sitting in front of her.

"Gokudera-san," she said gently, turning his attention towards her. "Could I have a word with Sawada-chan?" she jerked her head in the smaller girl's direction.

Gokudera sent a look at Tsuna, briefly meeting her gaze before letting out a long, suffering sigh. This was the second time that day that someone was asking him if they could have a private word with Tsuna, and he knew that it probably wouldn't be the last time this would happen, he just couldn't get that image of Tsuna arriving at the classroom looking seconds away from entering that calm anger she'd felt the day before.

She hadn't told him what had transpired though.

But Sasagawa Kyoko was one of the few people he tolerated in the school...

"Alright." he finally breathed, rising up from the chair. "I need to get lunch anyway." he pinned his eyes on Tsuna, almost pointedly looking her in the eyes. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

Tsuna couldn't help but chuckle lightly at this.

"I don't doubt you." she immediately answered, playfully dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

Gokudera chuckled right back.

"Wisecracker," he muttered as he walked past her.

"Oh you flatter me." came her playful reply.

"I do try." he shot right back, patting her twice on the shoulder before he finally slipped out of the classroom, leaving Tsuna with the school idol.

"You two get along quite nicely," Kyoko spoke up, turning Tsuna's attention back to her.

"Sasagawa-chan?" the smaller girl asked, allowing her face to show the question just as much as her voice. Well, as much as her half-covered face was able to show.

Kyoko just smiled at her reaction.

Carefully, minding her own injuries, the red-haired girl slipped into Gokudera's now vacant seat in front of Tsuna, allowing her injured arm to rest on the back of the chair so that she could look her classmate right in the eye.

Okay, eye-level.

Tsuna took notice of the light flinch in Kyoko's muscles as she moved, not that obvious, and it didn't look as though it was bothering her for more than a second, but it was still there.

"I wanted to thank you." Kyoko finally said after a moment of silence, causing Tsuna to look up from her observation. At her slightly confused expression, Kyoko elaborated. "For what you did yesterday."

Immediately, Tsuna shyly sank back into her chair, her hands coming together to fiddle with her own fingers, refusing to look the other girl in the eye.

It wasn't that she wasn't proud of what she had done to Mochida, she actually almost felt bad for how little guilt she felt, she was stupidly pleased in knowing that she had gotten that bastard back for what he had done to her, the scar he had put on her jaw… but hearing someone else mention it, not to mention thanking her for it…

That was just too weird.

Ignoring Tsuna's reaction, Kyoko kept talking.

"You were pretty cool," she said, causing Tsuna to snap her head up to stare at the other girl in obvious disbelief. "To stand up to Mochida after what he did to you..." she smiled even more at the thought. "That was really amazing."

Tsuna returned to her fiddling.

"It wasn't amazing..." she muttered, so low in fact that Kyoko had to strain her ears to hear what she had just said.

She opened her mouth to tell Tsuna she was when said girl cut her off.

"And I wasn't cool..." she said, now with a lot more confidence. "I was furious."

Now, it was Kyoko's turn to look shocked.

She just stared at the girl in front of her, watching as Tsuna continued to fiddle her fingers, for once in her life too absorbed in her own mind to really notice Kyoko's reaction.

"I just..." she kept talking. "I didn't want him to mistreat another girl, so I just… snapped… I guess." she finished her sentence with a conscientious grimace and a glance towards the other girl's face.

Now, she couldn't help but notice the shocked expression on the other girl's face.

"What's wrong?"

Kyoko had to shake her head to get her mind back on track, and when she did, she just kept looking at the other girl, until she managed to finally open her mouth to get the words out.

"You were angry?"

A look of mild understanding spread over Tsuna's face. She could only imagine what it may have looked like to the people watching. She didn't know how she had looked back there, but she had a strong feeling that it had been nothing like she usually acted.

Not to mention looked like she had felt.

"Seething," she answered, letting out a deep breath as she allowed herself to fall forward on the desk (mindful not to land on her lunch), folding her one arm over her head. "I haven't been that angry for about six years."

She felt the increase in flame flow as she recalled said point of anger.

She forced herself to snuff out the spark of anger before it really ignited.

Kyoko blinked for a few moments before she could bring herself to open her mouth again.

"You… you didn't look like you were angry."

"Well… I was." Tsuna muttered as she straightened herself out. Wanting something to do with her hands she picked up her chopsticks and began poking at the contents of her lunch box.

Glancing up at the other girl, Tsuna decided to make it easier for the other girl and give her at least a bit more than just that.

"My father's the same," she shared. For the first time, giving someone from her class that wasn't Gokudera something more personal than what they should've already been aware of what with them having shared a class for so long.

"Really?" Kyoko asked, intrigued.

"Yeah." Tsuna nodded. "I haven't actually seen him in person for a long time now, but I remember seeing him like… frightfully calm once when talking on the phone." Tsuna shuddered at the mere memory, it was the only time she had ever been truly frightened of her father. "So I guess that it runs in the family."

"Do you know what the call was about?" Kyoko asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"No," Tsuna answered immediately. "I was too afraid to ask." her mood darkened slightly as the realization dawned on her. "But… now that I think back at it..." she licked her lips. "He left a few days after that."

Seeing the obvious change in mood, Kyoko reached out to gently grab Tsuna's hand, forcing her to ease up her hold on her chopsticks.

"When did you last see your father?" she asked gently.

Tsuna let out a long sigh, shaking her head.

"He hasn't been home for six years."

Kyoko's eyes widened.

"Six years?" she repeated.

Tsuna nodded.

"Yep." she answered slowly. "I mean, he video-calls and sends gifts, but he's not here, you know?"

The other girl nodded in understanding, gently running her fingers over Tsuna's hand in what she hoped to be a comforting gesture.

To Tsuna, the other girl's hand felt really warm.

But then again, she wasn't used to touching people.

"Sawada-chan," Kyoko said once Tsuna once again looked into her eyes.

She smiled at her.

"Is it alright if I call you Tsuna-chan from now on?"

Had Tsuna been less in control of her body, she probably would have fallen out of her chair, her chopsticks almost dropping from her hand as she stared open-mouthed at the red-haired girl.

It was her turn to blink before she could bring herself to say anything.

She couldn't help herself anymore, her emotions were running too high.

She smiled.

"Sasagawa-chan..." she breathed in disbelief. Unconsciously, she brought up her hand to brush her hair behind her ear in that gesture everyone in their class had become familiar with once they had actually started taking time to notice her.

"I… I guess," she answered, her one shoulder shrugging upwards in a gesture those who happened to be watching at that very moment found oddly adorable considering who it was.

They were used to Tsuna being cold and almost unemotional…

When had she been adorable?

Kyoko marveled at the sight of Tsuna's small smile.

It was so rare, at it really suited her.

Mentally, she wished that the girl would smile more often.

She couldn't help it, she ignored the pain in her arm and threw both of them around the other girl's shoulders, hugging her as tightly as she could without causing all too much strain on her injuries. She just felt like the girl needed a hug.

At the sudden movement of Kyoko, Tsuna had frozen in her seat, not knowing what to do when confronted with a situation like this.

Kyoko didn't seem to notice this though.

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed, Tsuna-chan." the red-head giggled, running her uninjured hand over the girl's tangled and just a bit greasy hair, but she was too absorbed in simply hugging the, to her, adorable girl.

Finally, after a few long seconds, Kyoko pulled away from Tsuna, though she kept her hands on the girl's slender shoulders, smiling right at her, trying to find her eyes through her bangs.

"Then, call me Kyoko as well." she insisted.

"Kyoko-chan?" Tsuna asked cautiously, even more bewildered than before.

This brought a laugh from the lips of one of the schools most popular girls.

"That's it." the red-head giggled, nodding encouragingly.

"I hope we can become great friends."

Still bewildered, Tsuna had to pinch herself to ensure that she wasn't still at home in her bed.

"Friends… with me?"

"Of course," Kyoko answered as though it was the most obvious answer there was. "You're such a sweet girl Tsuna-chan." she let out a long sigh of self-disappointment, letting her head rest in the palm of her hand. "I'm just sorry it took so long for us to realize that."

It was all too good to be true.

Just a few days after she'd come to truly consider someone a friend, and feel as though they truly consider her to be theirs as well, the most popular and kindest girl in school was openly asking her if SHE wanted to be friends with HER?

How did this happen?

Then again… Tsuna was never really one to question things too much when it came to why people do what they do unless she didn't have a clear enough impression on why they would do it. But this was Sasagawa Kyoko, she doesn't have a truly mean-spirited bone in her body. She can behave overly feminine in ways that were painful to watch sometimes, but her kindness has always been genuine.

"Thank you..." she muttered, her mind still slightly a daze.

"Don't mention it," Kyoko said, patting Tsuna on the hand before she straightened up, throwing her red waves over her shoulder.

"Well." the red-head raised herself from her borrowed chair, eyes trailing over to the classroom door that had just been violently yanked open. "It would appear that our time together has run out." she gave Tsuna a teasing little smile, something that she'd never seen or even had the capability of imagining on Kyoko's face before.

But now that she had, she found that it suited her.

It suited her stupidly well.

"I can only imagine why that is," Tsuna stated exaggeratedly, glancing over her shoulder at the approaching silverette, a food-tray in hand with a covering over the plate.

Gokudera narrowed his eyes jokingly.

"Har har," he said, dumping the tray on the desk, Kyoko having just moved out of the way allowing the delinquent to plump down in front of Tsuna once again.

Tsuna caught Kyoko sending her a smug eyebrow, which again stupidly suited her face before the red-head disappeared off to her own desk.

"What was that about?" Gokudera asked, removing the lid off of the tray, revealing the plate of spaghetti bolognese underneath. She could tell that his mouth was already watering at the sight of the dish.

Okay… take a mental note of that…

"If only I knew," she answered with a roll of her eyes, almost piercing her omelet-rolls with her chopsticks in bewildered irritation.

* * *

A few desks away, surrounded by his fellow teammates, sat Yamamoto, chopsticks pushing restlessly at his sushi lunch. The lunch that had been left for him at the kitchen table that morning, like every other day.

He kept a smile on his face, he couldn't afford to let it fall when surrounded by the people that called themselves his friends, but it was getting more and more painful to even lift his arm. He was in pain, and no one around him was noticing it.

Well…

There was one person that had noticed.

His eyes once again drifted over towards a familiar messy head of light brown hair sitting with her chopsticks in her mouth and looking positively shining with that small smile on her lips. She was happier than he'd ever seen her, and he hadn't been the one to put that smile there. The cause of her smile was sitting in front of her, causing chaos around the classroom with his own smile.

No one in the room had ever seen either of them smile.

He was happy that she was happy, she deserved to be, but he couldn't help those dark thoughts, those dark feelings that were building inside of him. He didn't like it.

He wanted to be where Gokudera was sitting.

He wanted to sit with Sawada Tsunako, the girl who could read him like an open book, and not sitting surrounded by people who thought that they knew him.

They couldn't see past the smiles, and it was painful.

It was so painful…

Yamamoto watched as Sawada shoved a wiener into Gokudera's mouth. She didn't feed him, she shoved it into what Yamamoto could only guess was a smart-talking mouth.

When had they gotten so comfortable with each other?

When had they even started hanging out like that?

They were acting like they had been friends for years, not like they had barely known each other for over a month, and said month with one of them being at the throat at the other.

He was glad that Gokudera didn't treat Sawada like shit anymore, but he couldn't help those dark feelings forming, he didn't even know what was the cause of them.

Was he jealous? But in that case, what was he jealous of? He wasn't romantically interested in Sawada at all, but he did want to be closer to her.

"Yamamoto?" one of his team-mates brought him out of his thoughts, snapping his attention back towards the boys surrounding him. "Where are you right now?"

He forced a laugh out, turning his focus back to trying to look interested in the game-theory discussion going on around him.

Stars did he not want to think about baseball right now…

* * *

 **AN: Alright... I really hope you liked that one.**

 **Please tell me what you think, any thought you might've had as you read, give me feedback please, I'm not fishing for compliments I want thoughts, critiques if you have them they won't discourage me it will show me that you've actually taken in what I've written and thus will only encourage me to keep on writing.**

 **I love working on this story, I really do, and I don't want to stop working on it anytime soon.**

 **I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as I can, until then, I hope you spend your days doing something you enjoy for at least a part of it. In this society, that's about as much as one can ask for right?**

 **Until next time.**

 **This has been,**

 **A message from her ladyship.**


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